Road trip to Kilpisjärvi and Norway

On Thursday the 26th, we headed further north towards Kilpisjärvi, where we had planned to spend few days. During the same day, after we had arrived to Kilpisjärvi, we decided to check out the second highest fell of Finland, which is called Saana. The top of Saana is located at the altitude of 1029 m.a.s.l. It's a four-kilometer journey (one way) to the top from the village.

There was also a four-legged 'person' coming down the path.

On Friday the 27th, we headed towards the 'Three-Country Cairn', which is a place, where the borders of Norway, Sweden and Finland meet each other. We took the 10-o'clock ferry over the lake of Kilpisjärvi to Sweden, where it's about a three-kilometer hike to the cairn. The wilderness hut of Kuohkimajärvi is located just a few hundred meters towards Finland from the cairn. We fried few sausages on a campfire by the wilderness hut before heading towards Kilpisjärvi along Arctic Trail. The scenery from the path is probably one of the best in Finland. The route back to Kilpisjärvi is about 16 kilometers long, if you begin from the dock in Sweden, but I decided to hike to the summit of a nearby fell called Pikku-Malla. So, the total length of my route was about 20 kms.

On Saturday the 28th, we headed to Norway, as we drove to Skibotn, from where we continued towards Alta. The road followed the shorelines of the fjords along the way to Alta. In general, the scenery was pretty awesome. During the next day, we visited the rock carvings nearby Alta. The place is a part of the UNESCO's world heritage sites.

Summertime in Lapland

It has been a while since I wrote my previous post, but it seems that this blog is on its way to turn into a blog for worshiping Lapland, I guess :). At the moment, we've been spending a few days at the village of Äkäslompolo. A minor setback has happened by so far, as the battery of my camera decided not to work and it takes a week or two to get a new one. So, I'll have to get along with my 2 Mpix camera on my mobile phone, and to use iPhone for achieving bit better quality.

Today, I decided to check out a famous gorge, which climbs up to a nearby fell called Kesänki. The gorge is called Pirunkuru ('Devil's gorge'). This gorge goes by the secondary peak of the fell, which is located at the altitude of 519 m.a.s.l. I decided to take a look, as it was almost along the path.

The lower part of the path is quite easy-going, but the path becomes steeper and quite rocky at higher altitude.

The view from the secondary peak towards the highest peak of Kesänki, and the fell of Lainiotunturi is located further away, and its peak was covered by a shadow of clouds.

There is a quite wide and flat gorge in between of Kesänki's two peaks, and it's called Tahkokuru. A nice wooden lean-to is located in Tahkokuru, where we fried some sausages on a campfire and had few cups of coffee. The total length of the route was ca. 11 kms from our hut, as we took a bit longer route back from the wooden lean-to, cause we hiked a path, which is located behind a smaller fell called Nilivaara. All in all, I would really recommend a hike over Kesänki via Pirunkuru, as a pretty nice Lappish scenery can be seen by spending few hours with not that much effort.

For next, we are planning to head further north towards Kilpisjärvi tomorrow, and then head up to Northern Norway.