Pyhä-Luosto National Park

About this place

Pyhä-Luosto is a national park in Finnish Lapland, about 88 km northeast of Rovaniemi in a straight line. It was created in 2005 when Pyhätunturi National Park, Finland's oldest, founded in 1938, was joined with Luosto, making it both one of Finland's oldest and newest parks. The park covers 142 square kilometres, and its main features are its geology, old forests and wetlands. It sits on Finland's southernmost chain of twelve fells, remnants of Alp-like mountains two billion years old, with pine forests over 200 years old on the hills. The highest fells are Noitatunturi at 540 metres and Ukko-Luosto at 514 metres. Rounded, bare fells with grey boulder fields rise over a sea of pine and birch forest that turns gold and orange in autumn. Waterfalls such as Pyhänkaste drop through rocky gorges in the valleys, and in winter snow covers everything. Visitors hike the trails between the fells and through the gorges, climb Kultakero for the view and ski at the two neighbouring resorts in winter. It is one of Finland's most visited national parks, and autumn is one of its finest seasons.