Kolari, Finland - Polarsteps

Today we drove to Pallas-Ylläs Tunturi National Park to do (surprise) some hiking. First we hiked the Velho Polku (The Wizard’s Path) through some arctic rainforest, with more duckboards. The trail has a halfway point where there is a fire where you can grill some sausages. Again some curious Siberian Jays came looking for food. This time Kjell managed to get one to come eat out of his hand. After this entertainment, we had a decision to make. At this halfway point we could either finish this loop or add the Kiiruna Keippi. A 9 km loop around one of the fells. The hike is known to be quite demanding in the end so we weren’t sure. The first few kilometres did not look very had so we decided to give it a go. After 3 kilometres we did some math and figured out that if we would walk non stop we would still not make it back to the car until after sunset. With 6 kilometres from the Kiiruna Keippi and the last 1,5 km from the Velho Polku still before us we decided to do the wise thing and turn back. After about 50 minutes it started raining with a little bit of sleet mixed in, so we were happy with our choice. We made it back to the fire pit where we sheltered in a Kota (a Sami shelter) until the rain was not as bad anymore. The walk to the car right after the rain was very pretty. Little drops of water like diamonds in all the trees, illuminated by the sun. On the way home we saw some more reindeer (they’re everywhere) but this cute white one let me take his picture.