“Rice Mountain”, that is the meaning of Riisitunturi in the Finnish language. I guess the name was the reason I’ve chosen this place to see the famed Lappish white trees. A forest, that is completely covered in snow, indeed bears a strong resemblance to pieces of rice. This is Rissitunturi in pictures.
I wouldn’t say that this is the only place where you can see such views, however, few things make it a bit special. It is located right on the southern border of Lapland and unlike the north of Lapland, trees are still large. Unlike central Finland, the weather conditions and height are right to fully cover the trees in the snow.
Riisitunturi in winter
Well, first of all, the road itself looks outstanding. For quite a while it goes slightly uphill and as you go further, colors other than white start to disappear. The cool thing is – you don’t need to walk many kilometers to see beautiful things. It all starts right at the parking lot.
Yes, right into business. At first, the trees are tall and tightly packed. The way is thin and almost labyrinth-like.
As the sun was setting we continue going uphill, the trees gradually become smaller. On the top, there aren’t many of them, but they all seem to have pretty unusual shapes.
And, I don’t think I will surprise any of the travelers by recommending to visit it at sunset and leave late when it starts getting dark… unless you are up for picturing the northern lights. (In our case it was cloudy, so we didn’t stay).
A bit more about Riisitunturi
- According to nationalparks.fi it has good routes through sloping bogs
- It has a winter, 20 km cycling trail, as well as multiple hiking and skiing trails
- The area is almost entirely 300 meters above the sea level
- The peaks reach around 400 meters high
- Riisitunturi is not far from Ruka – a popular downhill skiing resort
- There is another downhill skiing resort around 100 km – Suomu (the one we stayed at). This one does not have the same many facilities but slopes are arguably better.
More Riisitunturi pictures
