Whether or not you’ve been looking for your next travel location, you have to add this location to your bucket list. It’s easily accessable and extremely beautiful place.
I made a short visit to this location and even stayed there for one night in a remote cabin. That night and the next morning were the best I’ve had in a long time.
You are probably wondering what and where this magical place is. You’ve may have heard about it before…
It’s Riisitunturi! Located in Kuusamo, Finnish Lapland. Absolutely breathtaking place. It’s most known for it’s snow covered trees and the beautiful landscape around it. The location and the atmosphere is the reason why the trees have extra amount of snow there compared to anywhere else in Finland.
Even though winter has been pretty bad this year in Finland, you barely can notice it in Riisitunturi.
When we were on our way to Riisitunturi, I was a little nervous that there wouldn’t be any snow on the top of Riisitunturi because no other place had snow. Luckily I was wrong.
If you do intend to go there and want to sleep in the cabin on top, you should know that it is a pretty popular place. We got lucky because the parking lot was empty when we arrived at 8pm. We decided to go check it out if it would be empty so we would be already at the top to watch the sunrise.
We got our skis and all of our stuff we needed for the night and started heading to the top. The weather was foggy, but we could see the full moon peaking through the fog.
As soon as we got to the cabin we started a fire in the stove so we wouldn’t have to sleep in the cold. Then we started waiting for some Northern lights and clear skies.
Couple hours went by and I started thinking that we might just have to go to sleep because the clouds nor the fog looked like they were going away any time soon.
I ate and decided to head out to the toilet outside. It was like a miracle. The fog had disappeared and the clouds were almost gone too. I already saw some stars and the bright full moon made it looked like almost daytime.
I instanly went to get my camera and dress more clothes so I wouldn’t get cold. I ran outside into a location I had scouted earlier and started taking pictures. Here are some of my favourites from the whole night:
If you would like to see more photos, be sure to check out my Instagram by clicking the button below! All of the images will be later added to my portfolio when it’s ready.
The morning
If the night wasn’t epic enough, just wait till you see the sunrise shots. The conditions were perfect for some dreamy photographs.
We woke up to the alarm at 7am. Nice little five hours of sleep after last nights Northern lights hunt. The views made up for it though so couldn’t complain.
We quickly gathered and packed our things and put on our skis and headed to the top to watch the sunrise. The landscape was something else. Sunrise on the other side and huge full moon on the other. What else could you ask for?
I took many amazing shots that I really like but here are some of my favourites:
I wish I could have stayed there for a little longer… I still have many ideas for photographs I want to capture there but that’s for another time. I will definitely be back some day.
If you’ve been looking for a place to experience the Lapland magic, this is definitely it. The Northern lights, the sunrise and the incredible experience of sleeping in a remote cabin for a night. All this can be found in Riisitunturi, Finnish Lapland.
For now, I wish you happy adventures and I'll see you in my next post!
