Finding high places – Malla National park, Kilpisjärvi

We thought we should keep a “not-so-much-incline” day and decided to visit the three country border where Finland, Sweden and Norway cross borders. The route one way is 11 kilometers with “not that much” incline. Well true, not that much, but calculate that round-trip and it starts to be a decent amount after all. Plus all the “normal” hiking on top of that.

It was 219 ascent going there and it took us 3 h 25 min. Tried to save strength to the way back which had 197 ascent and it took in the end 2 h 44 min. It was sunny and hot +23 degrees so there were a lot of mosquitoes and other annoying bugs which required you to keep long pants/sleeves if you just can. They don’t seem to bother everyone, but if you possess the kind of blood they like, keeping also mosquito repellent with you helps.

Otherwise the whole journey does not have too bad incline and has a lot of almost level path, so suitable for anyone in that sense. Some with kids did only the hike to the waterfall and back which is about 12 k’s round trip. Saying that it is a long hike, so have some snacks and plenty of water with you.

Siilaskoski rapids

We left the car to Siilaskoski parking lot just before the border control point of Finland and Norway. The start of the route takes you across Siilaskoski rapid and then starts going up.

Almost level path past small lakes takes you to the next incline in the picture left hand upper corner

There are a lot of rocks (and bugs…) but once you get higher up above the treeline there is a nice breeze and almost level path takes you past a lake towards the old military defense point at the top. Climb is not too bad and the view that opens up is again worth stopping for so we decided to keep a coffee break there. This was the highest point of the route about 691 meters. There is also a repaired military dugout to check out.

Going forward from the top the path goes down ans up again. The path is rocky and rugged, but worth climbing as at the top you can find a beautiful waterfall.

Waterfall around midpoint of the trail
Finland- Norway country border fence

Route continues up almost horizontally for a long time to the horizon…

…Until it dives down again only to bump into the fence of the Finland-Norway border. Few more k’s along the border line and you will reach the three country border. It has been recalculated a few times, but apparently now stays still here. See my tweet of the quick trip between three countries.

Path back was much quicker than going there but by the time we were back at the waterfall we were already exhausted. Kept pushing on and had this funny competition about what time we would be back at the car and beat our time by few minutes.

So happy that we got to spend our 6 month wedding anniversary today (got married 19.1.2019) in the lovely Lapland and will continue our honeymoon towards Tromsö, Norway.

Needless to say tomorrow is a resting day and legs are killing me, but it has totally been worth the pain!

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