Hiking in Lapland

Rupakivi

Our first sightseeing location in Karhunkierros (if you start from Hautajärvi) is Rupakivi. One thing that is worth mentioning here is that even though Karhunkierros has more than half dozen sightseeing places, only two of those places are in Lapland and this is one of those two.
Rupakivi is basically big (five meters tall) rock in middle of Savinajoki river. Along the years, water has slowly sculptured the rock to its current form. I’ve seen some photographs, where hikers have walked (or swam) to the rock. I’ve also seen pictures with fisherman standing on a rock, which would support the idea of walking to the rock. It would probably be quite interesting experience to study Rupakivi from close distance, but I’ve never done it personally as I tend to be overly cautious on solo hiking trips.
In case you just want to make day trip to Rupakivi and skip rest of Karhunkierros, closest car park is 4km away.

More photographs from Rupakivi:

P.S. If you are hiking with big pack, you probably want to leave it on top of ridge, before you descent down to riverbed to watch Rupakivi. At least I wouldn’t want to climb stairs with 20kg pack, if I can easily avoid it. These stairs have been setup to make it easier for hikers to descent down to riverbed, ascent back to trail as well as to protect ground from unnecessary erosion.