Oulanka National Park
Oulanka is a national park in northern Finland, founded in 1956 and covering an area of 270 km2. A river with the same name flows through the park towards the Russian Paanayarvi National Park, which is more than 4 times larger than the Oulanka Reserve. Over 150,000 travelers visit the park every year.
The park is ideal for hiking enthusiasts. There are routes of varying lengths and difficulty throughout the park, allowing you to hike for a day, or even for the whole week, if desired. The landscapes of Oulanka Park contribute to peace, outdoor enthusiasts can walk near the raging rapids, over suspension bridges over deep stone gorges and rapids. You can go down a calm river by kayak, but extreme sports enthusiasts can not lose heart, because in some places the river becomes quite fast and dangerous because of the rapids. The 80-kilometer route from the information center to the Ruka resort is the most popular in the Oulanka National Park. Usually the duration of the hike is 4-6 days. There are huts and tent sites throughout the routes, which can be used for free. Usually, you can already find ready-made firewood and matches in the huts. But there are quite a lot of travelers in the summer, so you'll have to share your overnight stay with them.
Flora and fauna of Oulanka Park
There are many unique animals in the Oulanka National Park. There are 30 representatives of mammals, more than 7,000 insects and about 120 species of birds in the park, some of them can be seen only in this region. Oulanka is good for bird lovers, because here you can see: sandpipers, wagtails, finches, golden eagles, dippers, mountain tails. And because of the calcium-rich soil, there is a wide variety of plants in the park. There are a lot of fish in the rivers of the park, so you can combine your vacation with fishing and trout fishing on the Oulanka or Kitka rivers. Local tour operators can offer to spend the night in a hut and watch the bears come to enjoy the treats left for them next to the hut. In addition to bears, moose are often found in the park.
Oulanka is surrounded by peace and quiet, as well as Finnish grooming. The park is located on deposits of dolomite limestone, which makes nature show itself in full force. The nature here is unlike any other region of Finland, the Arctic and tundra meet in the north, the taiga approaches from the south, the cold Arctic from the east, and the warm current of the Gulf Stream warms from the west.
