{"id":631,"date":"2012-08-30T11:01:20","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T09:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"\/blog\/?p=631"},"modified":"2023-06-29T17:09:59","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T14:09:59","slug":"pallas-hetta-walk-on-the-highway-through-pallas-yllastunturi-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gerald-zojer.com\/blog\/pallas-hetta-walk-on-the-highway-through-pallas-yllastunturi-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Pallas-Hetta – Taking the “Highway” in Pallas-Yll\u00e4stunturi National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pallas-Hetta<\/a>Recently, a few visitors and friends asked me, how often I have already walked through Pallas-Yll\u00e4stunturi National Park<\/em>. Well – the truth is, never before. OK, I have often been in the national park, but never really walked through it. However, with two friends deciding to walk from Pallas to Hetta, I joined their decision and then them, to also get my premiere – at least for the part through the two Northern fell areas. The reason why I never did that before, was, that it seemed a bit crowded for me and having a lot (or even too much) of infrastructure. And this, as it turned out, was not an exaggeration …<\/p>\n

As said, we started our trip at Pallas, or more precisely at the Pallas hotel. I was surprised to even find ski lifts there. I did not have many expectations about that place (how beautiful can it be when you know, there is a big parking area and a big hotel in the mountains), but seeing some ski lifts really surprised me. So OK. I thought, well, that might be it, as we are just leaving from a rather frequented place and tried to ignore the huge metal constructions and the man-made eroded hill sites; and indeed, it didn’t take us long to be out of sight of these esthetically unpleasant scenery.<\/p>\n

As we left only in the afternoon, we weren’t sure how far we will go the first day. We had a tent with us, so we wouldn’t have been depending on open wilderness huts, even though the policy of the national park is – unlike in many other regions in Finland, where the everyman’s rights is in place – that you are only allowed to build up your tent in the vicinity \"Look<\/a>of such huts (which I read at one info poster and didn’t know before). Anyhow, as the first raindrops of the predicted precipitation hit us, and we just reached the kota Rihmakuru<\/em>, we decided to make at least a break there – or probably even spend the night there. The scenery was beautiful, we were able to refill our water bottles, made a tea and topped it with grilling some semi-delicious makkara on the open fire. Nevertheless, as the rain stopped and a few more people (who planned to stay there over night) showed up, we continued our journey to the Nammalakuru<\/em> autiotupa (=open wilderness hut). On the way there we were frequently almost stumbling over beautiful (and delicious looking) Willow Ptarmigans, which is also the heraldic animal of the coat of arms of the Enonteki\u00f6 municipality. We anyway had planned to make a stop at Nammalakuru<\/em>, since a friend, who hiked from Hetta to Pallas the week before, left us some surprise present there (thanks a lot Guille!). Arriving at the hut, only the varaustupa (reservable wilderness hut) was occupied, whereas the open wilderness hut was emptily waiting for our arrival. Well, that is – not completely empty, the surprise booze was waiting for us.<\/p>\n

Skip reading & jump straight to the PICTURE GALLERY<\/a>
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We also chose to stay in a hut over night, as we were expecting some rain, and if not really inevitable, we rather wanted to continue our trip with a dry tent. And indeed, just after we left the autiotupa in the morning, it began to rain. While putting on the rain cover over my backpack, i discovered a big group of (not quite sporty looking) people, of which I was surprised. The latter originated in the fact, that I didn’t consider also some other paths into the national park, and only expected long distance hikers. Nevertheless, a big group (like one or two bus loads) of hikers were coming up from the lake Vuontisj\u00e4rvi near the village Yli-Kyro, to take advantage of the caf\u00e9, which is located in a kota just next to the Nammalakuru<\/em> autiotupa (which I have to add, is situated in a beautiful spot – just on the upper limit of the tree line, which allows a nice view over the valley).<\/p>\n

After thrusting ourselves through the crowd and quickly passing by the very small autiotupa Montellinmaja<\/em>, the hike became again more enjoyable, as the amount of people became clearer. Continuing to follow the wide path towards Hetta, our next planned stop was the Suaskuru<\/em> kota. \"Before<\/a>However, on the top of the last hill, before going down to this kota, we made a special break to fascinatingly watch the black and low hanging clouds heading towards us from the South. After the clearly visible front of this huge, dark hiking companion reached us welcoming with heavy rain fall, we continued our journey to the dry interior of the lovely situated and already mentioned kota, to make our lunch break. Sated we left the fire place to hike towards our final target for that day, the Hannukuru<\/em> open wilderness hut. \"After<\/a>While we were still a bit above the tree line, the sudden lifting of the fog surprised us. Astonished we stood still, and watched how the invisible sun was sucking up all the moist from the ground and air, until within minutes the whole basin between Pallas- and Ounastunturi became visible, with some delay even including the peaks of the Northern fells. Without rain and already spotting our day destination, we slowed down and took our time to pick some berries, knowing that we will have a smooth sauna evening ahead of us.<\/p>\n

Hannukuru<\/em> is really a huge place approximately in the middle between Pallas and Hetta: One combined autiotupa with varaustupa, a big separate varaustupa building, a marked camping area, a kota, several wood shelters and fire places and everything topped with a big and cosy sauna at the lake side. This, I’d say, is clearly the place in the whole national park, that makes it most apparent, how many people take advantage of this area. However, we were rather lucky and putting our tent at an empty camping ground, even though the huts seemed well filled with people. So was the sauna, which however did not at all reduce the pleasure of continuing sweating without exercise. The clear lake (which another hiker explained us is supposed to be a spring and not filled by the brooks and rivers coming down from the fells) was highly pleasant to swim, and the fire places comforted us with sufficient heat to prepare our food and keep warm also after sauna (which, by the way, costs 7 \u20ac per person, and can be payed either there via SMS or in one of the Mets\u00e4hallitus’ nature centers).<\/p>\n

Skip reading & jump straight to the PICTURE GALLERY<\/a>
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\"Hannukuru\"<\/a>After spending a quiet evening and morning at Hannukuru<\/em>, and enjoying most wonderful weather in the following day, we spontaneously decided to prolong our stay for a second night, and to hang out at the delightful shore of the small lake there. In the end it turned out that we chose the right day for relaxation, as it turned out to be the only day on this short trip, without rain. Which meant on the other hand, that on the next day we once again had the incredible chance to test the watertightness of our hiking boots.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>Leaving Hannukuru<\/em>, the next autiotupa we came by is Pahakuru<\/em>. What I didn’t realize the last time I have been there, is, that from this point the Northern boarder for spruce trees becomes visible! Looking down into the basin, you can still see a few spruce trees emerging from the forest, however, looking towards North (and also later on the way we watched out for it), you don’t find them anymore. From Pahakuru<\/em> then it was an easy hike towards Siuskuru<\/em>, which I so far only knew from the winter trail. Generally the hike between Pallas and Hetta is rather easy with not much elevation, but it seemed to get even easier the closer we came to Hetta. The whole day we were walking through more or less heavy rain, which (once again) took a lot out of the fun of making pictures as well as the hike itself, and I think we were all kind of happy to reach Siuskuru<\/em>. At this wilderness hut I have been a few times already, in different season as well, but every time I had at least some precipitation there, so it was not really a surprise to arrive there in the rain. However, this eased the decision for me, to shorten the trip, and already continue to finish this trip by trying to reach Hetta the same day. While my friends wanted to spend another night in the Pyh\u00e4kero<\/em> autiotupa (where I really have been very often already), I took the road down from Mustavaara, and arrived with the last light in the town.<\/p>\n

Over all I have to say, that the trip was OK. I didn’t have high expectations before starting the hike, and I got neither disappointed nor positively surprised. I was a bit startled about discovering ski lifts in the national park, but otherwise it turned out pretty much as expected. The trail is really wide: You can see the trails from far away already, sometimes you have the impression they would be wide enough for regular cars. There is a lot of infrastructure, and especially with the size of the Hannukuru<\/em> facilities it becomes most obvious, that this hiking route serves a lot of people. On the other hand the nature is beautiful, and the animals – apparently used to see many humans – are not very frightened by hikers, which allows to get a close look at wild living animals. In Nammalakuru<\/em> for example, reindeer were even walking around between the huts, and coming as close to you as a meter. The hike is easy, not much elevation (which will hardly be found anywhere in Finland ..), and for people who don’t want to carry or sleep in a tent, the huge number of kotas and wilderness huts makes it easy to accomplish a few days hike.<\/p>\n

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UPDATE June 2023:
\nWhile in the last years, all the boat taxi services over lake Ounasj\u00e4rvi were only powered by noisy and polluting combustion engines, since 2023 there is also an environmentally friendly alternative: Vihre\u00e4 keino<\/a> offers a boat taxi service over the lake Ounasj\u00e4rvi with a muscle powered, wooden rowing boat.<\/p>\n

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