Riisitunturi National Park
Popular places to visit in the Riisitunturi National Park include the Riisitunturi Fell summit and the landscape sites along the excursion trails. You can trek the hillside landscapes to traverse the entire park. The Riisitunturi National Park is also a natural winter park rich with meaningful experiences. You are allowed to ski cross-country in all parts of the park.
The Riisitunturi National Park is wilderness-style fell and hill nature at its best. The fell is decorated by the unique slope mires and the sparsely wooded summit of the Riisitunturi Fell has breathtaking views of Lake Kitkajärvi and the forest landscapes of Posio. Popular places to visit include the Riisitunturi Fell summits with the wilderness cabin between the summits, and the landscape sites along the excursion trails.
The Riisitunturi National Park is connected with the Karitunturi peat protection area in the south-west and ancient forests along the southern and northern sides of the park. These areas have been proposed for supplementing the park that was established in 1982.
Riisitunturi nature
The National Park and its surroundings form a wilderness region characterised by slope mires, hillside spruce copses and southern fell nature. Special features of the area are the slope mires. In the wintertime, the spruce dominated forests are shrouded in a thick covering of snow and ice, and hardened crown snow. The region also has an abundance of smaller lakes. Maaselkä is the watershed between the east and west, and it runs through the park.
The park is almost entirely at a height of over 300 metres above sea level. The two summits of the Riisitunturi Fell itself rise to a height in excess of 450 metres.
Riisitunturi summer and winter routes
The Riisitunturi trunk route for either walking or skiing travels through the park from Noukavaara Hill in the north-east, via the Riisitunturi Fell in the south-west to the Karitunturi Fell, continuing on to the Kirintövaara Hill. The route is part of the national UKK route.
The distance from Noukavaara to Kirintövaara is 29 kilometres. The route is marked on the trees in the terrain with orange paint. The trail can also be travelled as a return route and is ideally suited for a two-day hike. The Riisitunturi wilderness cabin, Karitunturi wilderness cabin and four other lean-to shelters also mean that pleasant return day trips are also easy to take.
Travelling via the Riisitunturi wilderness cabin and fell summit is a 2-kilometre side route to Riisiaho that has a road connection to the former ending point of the trail at the Syrjälahti parking area. This is the most popular arrival route for accessing the fell and cabin.
Two ring routes suitable for day trips were opened in summer 2009. The shorter trail covers around 4.5 kilometres and circles the top of the Riisitunturi Fell, while the longer trail travels round the western side of the fell via the Nuolivaara Hill to circle the Riisisuo swamp. The latter trail also displays information about the region’s natural meadow culture of days gone by.
In the early spring you can ski traditional style cross-country trails running from Korpihilla in the village of Tolva to the Riisitunturi cabin, from the cabin to the Syrjälahti parking area, and from Kirintövaara to Karitunturi.
NATURE DESTINATIONS
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Korouoma Nature Reserve
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Riisitunturi National Park
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Hirsiniemi
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Pyytöuoma
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Auttiköngäs
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Karitunturi - Kirintövaara
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Palotunturi
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Mustarinnantunturi
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Waterways
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Unobstructed route - Kirintövaara