The Nature in the area

The region is the Northern Dalarna, right in the center of the Scandinavia Peninsula. Here lies the first northern wilderness for who is coming from south; the first real mountains, even if with softers heights and roughness than other European ranges, like the Alps. You can have to hand the two distinctive environments of these latitudes nature: taiga (coniferous forest) and tundra (above the tree line). All of this at 5 and a half driving hours from Stockholm or Oslo, where the main airports are.

Within a range of 70 km you can find 5 National Parks and about thirty nature reserves, some of them huge, but all with marvelous forest habitats, wet areas and mountain with easy paths and not challenging slopes, and spectacular rapids and waterfalls.

18 km far from Särna Glysjön Lake lies, which is a first-rate spot for many birds, in every seasons: Osprey, Crane, Diver, Wooper Swan, Goldeneye, Smew, Canada Goose, Willow grouse, Capercaillie, just to mention the commonest. There are 5 sighting tower and fire places. On the shores Elk, Fox and Beaver are common, but not easy to spot due to their nocturnal habits. To see wolves, lynxes or bears is very difficult as well, but following statistics, to meet Bears and Wolves is easier in Dalarna than in other Swedish areas.

Chances for birding and nature photography are therefore remarkable.

Moreover, the region Dalarna, also called Dalecarlia, boasts the most traditional folk celebration of all Sweden (Midsommar, around June 20th).

Take a look at the Chronicles of Särna to see the pictures taken in the area in the last years. 

Fulufjället National Park

It is the best known protected area in the region, the first mountain and unspoiled area of the Scandinavian Alps going north, one of the very few so untouched in middle-south Sweden. Made by sedimentary rocks similar to dolostone (and rich in fossils), it is an undulating upland 15 km wide and 34 km long, altitude 1.000 meters. This tableau, scenic and easy to approach, is surrounded by wooden slopes furrowed by narrow ravines. At the north-east end of the Park there is Njupeskär, the highest waterfall of the whole country (93 mt. in total, 70 in a single jump).

The park is at the same time the northernmost place where to see typical european species, and the southernmost spot where to meet arctic animals and plants. The upland heath is unique in Sweden for its flora association: bushes, herbs and lichens. Reindeers are not grazing here, and the result is an endless white carpet of lichens.

The wild environments and the several wet areas support a wide range of bird life, as Three-toed Woodpecker, Bluethroat and Hawk Owl, besides the well spread Capercaillie, Black Grouse and Willow Grouse. The symbol of the Park is the Siberian Jay.

Path system is well developed, with about 140 km of marked paths, and the possibility to overnight on the tableau.

Njupeskär

The park offers several suggestions, including:

Njupeskär path. A ring path very easy and popular, which offer a lot from the point of view of scenery and nature: the lower part first runs in a swamp, then into a beautiful virgin spruce forest, with views over the stream. The goal is of course the waterfall, whose cliff has hosted in 2008 a nesting Gyrfalcon, seen in the area also the following year. Common and unshy the Dipper, and Brambling, Firecrest, Kestrel, Ring Ouzel, Yellow Wagtail. At the waterfall, where the strip of birch gives way to the rock, in the right season you can meet the mountain Lemming.

Lakes Rörsjön. Lake area on the high altitude plateau, in the open tundra. Depending on the snow situation it is possible to reach this area which offers Red and Black-throated Diver, Scooter, Blue-throat, Arctic Terns and other typical species of the tundra.

Stora Göljän Naturstig. The area of Göljän protects a site with special characteristics. The path follows the valley of the river with the same name, which was devastated in 1997 by an huge flooding, which followed a storm of epochal dimensions. The torrent swept away thousands of trees with a wall of water 6 feet high, creating a new course, and a new environment. The path runs between a chaos of dead trees piled up by the force of the water and exposed rocks, and areas where the forest is restarting its cycle through pioneer species in an ecosystem in progress which is unique in Europe.

Stenvallen

It is a "fäbod", a typical old summer pasture farm from centuries ago, in the middle of the forest. At the end of XIX century the site was also an overnight resort for the wanderers along the ancient path to Njupeskär waterfalls. Ever since nothing has changed: summertime Inga and Sten open the place to visitors, providing cakes, drinks, historical and nature information on the area. The site is unaltered, and the genuine and friendly atmosphere belongs to an age which doesn't exist anymore, but here lives again at least a little. Stenvallen is placed close to the National Park, in a protected biotope with forest and marsh.

Fulufjället

Göljån

Städjan-Nipfjället Nature Reserve

This reserve covers a large area of open tundra at high altitude, dominated by the peaks with the same name. Städjan in particular is characteristic of this mountain region, with its profile shaped like a volcano, when viewed from north or south; the peaks around it are more rounded, covered with yellow and green lichen. This reserve has a breeding station of Dotterel, presence of Ptarmigan and other typical species of rocky or grassy tundra: Golden Plover, Meadow Pipit, Whimbrel. Groups of male reindeers are present in warm weather. The upper part, very scenic, is easily accessible via a graveline road that ends at 1002 meters of altitude, which makes it the higher in the whole Sweden.

The reserve also protects the vast marshlands to the north, lakes (Store Harundsjön, Burusjön) with the presence of Otter and Beaver, and stretches of forest particularly rich in Black and Three-toed Woodpecker, alongside the usual birdlife of this environments.

Flatruet

Located about two hours drive away, in the neighboring region of Jämtland, Flatruet is a tundra plateau at 975 meters of altitude, crossed by a small road. It is therefore a comfortable door to a vast open tundra environment, beyond the limit of vegetation, rich in ponds and marshes that are homing a rich bird life, easy to observe: Wheatear, Meadow Pipit, Long-tailed Skua, Dunlin, Wood Sandpiper, Lapland Bunting, Golden Plover, Dotterel, Greenshank, Arctic Tern, Red-necked Phalarope, Rough-legged Buzzard, Bluethroat, and more, but also Stoat and mountain Lemming.

Städjan

Yxningåfallen

Other huge protected areas are the Långfjället Nature Reserve, Vedungfjällen N.R., and the national parks Rogen, Femundsmarka e Gutulia (the lattest two in the near Norway).

Waterfalls

The region is rich in rivers and consequently falls and rapids. The most famous and spectacular is the mentioned Njupeskär, but others are scattered across the region:

Fjätfallen. 8 km from Särna the river Fjätan shapes some spectacular jumps on a broad front, with great flow of water, digging a large canyon in the forest.

Lille Fjätfallet at Fjätervålen, the lesser sister Fjätfallen offer equally lovely views.

Silverfallen. In the Långfjället reserve, along the river Olan valley close to the Norwegian border, is a small waterfall at the end of a 4 km path, which mostly deserve for the landscape and the birch forest habitat.

Fulufallen. An easy 1,6 km nature trail leads to a stretch of the river Fulu, near the Fulufjället N.P. where within 400 meters 8 rapids are embedded in the forest, for a total jump of 80 meters. 

Yxningåfallen. In the Vedungfjällen nature reserve, set in a magnificent forest, some spectacular and large waterfalls with a chain of jumps of about 12/15 meters each.