The Kiutaköngäs rapids
The strongest thing in the park, with an easy path to it.
Lysy — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ximonic (Simo Räsänen) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ninara — CC BY 2.0 · Ximonic (Simo Räsänen) — CC BY-SA 3.0
A network of simple timber cabins run by the Finnish forest service along hiking routes across the country, **free, always open and unbookable**. A hut has a stove, firewood, sleeping platforms and sometimes a basic kitchen, with no electricity and no running water. The basic rule: **whoever arrives last has priority** — if the hut is full, those who came first move to their tents, a strict convention resting on the fact that a late arrival may be in trouble. Leave the hut clean and replace the firewood. There are also reservable huts for a fee. This network is what makes long-distance walking in Finland possible at almost no cost.
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Oulanka National Park lies on the Russian border in north-eastern Finland, and is **the best-known Finnish national park for hiking** — because of one trail. **Karhunkierros**, the Bear's Ring, is an eighty-kilometre route crossing the park in three to six days, the oldest long-distance path in Finland and the most famous. Along it are free open cabins for overnight stays, equipped fire sites, and suspension bridges over the rivers. Anyone not walking the whole route walks the **Little Bear's Ring**, twelve kilometres, which covers its finest parts in a day. The scenery is unlike the rest of Finland: the **Oulanka river valley** with red sandstone cliffs, and a chain of rapids of which **Kiutaköngäs** is the best known — the strongest thing in the park, with an easy path built to it from the visitor centre. **About 200 km from Rovaniemi — it needs an overnight at Kuusamo or Ruka.** Free.
The strongest thing in the park, with an easy path to it.
Crossing the rivers along the trail.
Kuusamo and Salla, north-eastern Finland