Rokua National Park

Rokuanvaara Hill is part of a long chain of esker formations laid down by meltwater rivers as the ice melted at the end of the Ice Age about 10,000 years ago. Notice how the ancient wind-blown sand dunes that once shifted across this region's icy tundra steppes are now stable, and covered with pine forests.

Snow and ice still cover Rokua for several months a year, when the park is popular with cross-country skiers.

Take a whole day or two to trek round the 22-km Emperor's Circle Trail, which passes the area's main highlights. Relax at Rokua's spa and wellness centre or in the Suppa Travel Centre after a day in the woods. If you don't feel like straying too far from the comforts of the wellness centre the pleasant Lianjärvi Nature Trail, is just 2.2 km round.

Esker plants and insects

You can picnic or even camp out beside Lake Pitkäjärvi or by one of the park's traditional Lappish shelters. Firewood is provided by campfire sites. Rokua's dry forests are highly inflammable, so take care when lighting a fire – and don't make a fire at all when forest fire warnings are issued!

On a warm day you can take a cooling dip in one of the "kettle hole" ponds that show where huge blocks of ice remained frozen among the sandy Ice Age deposits. Many unusual esker plants grow here, including creeping thyme, shaggy mouse-ear hawkweed, fragrant Solomon's s and rare spring sedge. The strong aroma of the thyme attracts many rare butterflies to the eskers. Don't be tempted to take any home for your pasta sauce.

In the autumn Rokua is a good place to forage for edible mushrooms. Nutritious lingonberries also grow well among the lichen. Reindeer lichen thickly carpets the forest floor, as no reindeer are grazed today in this part of Northern Finland.

Choose your own route round Rokua's pleasant pinewoods See: http://www.outdoors.fi/rokuanp