Northern part of Sweden

Area: Norrbottens Län and Västerbottens Län

The north of Sweden: the land of the midnight sun, and the amazing area of "Laponia", where 4 national parks are joined together to one huge area. Laponia is declared a World Heritage site thanks to its nature and the Sámi culture.

This wild unbroken continuous area of National Parks and Nature reserves is as big as 9400 km2. This is the last wilderness of Europe. Sarek National Park has not even hiking trails or huts. I just love to hike in this area, which is above the Polar Circle, often doing hikes from a week to 10 days. Putting up our little tent close to a lake or river for the night, after a day of hiking through amazing mountain landscape. No people in sight for kilometers and kilometers; your only neighbour might be a curious reindeer.

Kungsleden (= Kings trail) is the most known and the longest of the many hiking trails in Sweden. It starts in Abisko and goes in a southerly direction. It is passing thru Abisko National Park, Stora Sjöfallet National Park and then lingers on the border to Sarek National Park, continues further south, and the trail ends 450 km later. There are self-serviced mountain huts every 15-25 km at the trail. Good starting points for hiking are: Abisko, Ritsem and Jokkmokk.

The coast of the area of Norrland towards the Gulf of Bothnia is almost 400 km long. It is an outflow for many of the rivers - called Älv' - that transport the big amount of water from the Fjällen and the big "slopes" to the coast.

Interesting points to see in the area are: