Several mountain inns were established in the Middle Ages to house pilgrims traveling through Dovrefjell to Trondheim, and there are even ruins of an old leper colony in the northern area of it.

The main south-north highway (European route E6) and the Dovrebanen railway line both run through a mountain pass in the Dovrefjell range.

Together with the neighboring Rondane National Park, the area has Norway (and Europe's) last stock of wild reindeer of Beringian origin.

PIE *dhubrós, "deep"[3]), a root that is also attested in German Topel ("forested valley") and Old Slavic dublŭ ("hole").

[11] From the oldest times has Dovrefjell been the border region between the northern and southern parts of Norway, and the road over the mountain was well known.

At this time it was assumed that Snøhetta in Dovrefjell was the highest mountain in Norway, since the higher peaks in Jotunheimen were fairly unresearched.