Sarek National Park is a national park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 in Jokkmokk Municipality

Jokkmokk Municipality

Jokkmokk Municipality is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Jokkmokk.The name Jokkmokk is Sami for the words "river" and "bend", since the town is situated close to a bend in the nearby river....

, in the province Lapland

Swedish Lapland

Lappland is a province in northernmost Sweden. It borders Jämtland, Ångermanland, Västerbotten, Norrbotten, Norway and Finland. About a quarter of Sweden's surface area is in Lappland.Lappland originally extended eastward...

 in northern Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. Sarek borders the national parks Stora Sjöfallet

Stora Sjöfallet

Stora Sjöfallet is a national park in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden, in Gällivare Municipality. It is situated by the Norwegian border. It was declared a national park in 1909. The national park is part of the Laponian area which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site...

 and Padjelanta

Padjelanta

Padjelanta is a national park in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. Established in 1963 , it is the largest national park in Sweden with an area of 1,984 km2, and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Laponia established in 1996.- Nature :The park, which borders to Norway in the west, is...

. The national park is popular with hikers and mountaineers, but not suitable for beginners.

The national park is roughly circular with an average diameter of about 50 kilometers. The park has no marked trails, no accommodations, and only two bridges. Furthermore, the area is among the most rainy in Sweden, which makes hiking dependent on weather conditions. It is also not uncommon to encounter stream

Stream

A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

s that are hard and dangerous to wade across without proper experience.

The Rapa River

Rapa River

The Rapa River is a tributary of the Lesser Lule River in north Norrland, in Norrbotten County, Sweden. The river stretches 75 km from its source to the mouth of Lake Tjaktjajaure . At the mouth of Lake Laitaure , slightly higher up, the Rapa River forms the Laitaure Delta...

 delta

River delta

A delta is a landform that is formed at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river. Deltas are formed from the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the flow leaves the mouth of the river...

 is considered one of Europe's prettiest, and the summit of mount Skierffe offers an overlook of this ice covered trough valley.

Most notably, the national park houses a number of high mountains of over 2,000 meters. In fact, 6 of Sweden's 13 peaks over 2,000 meters are located inside the boundaries of the national park. Among these is the second highest mountain in Sweden, Sarektjåkkå. Sometimes the massif of Mt. Ahkka

Áhkká

Áhkká , also known in its "Swedified" form Akka, is a massif in the southwestern corner of Stora Sjöfallet National Park in northern Sweden....

, located just north from Sarek National Park, is also included to the geographical Sarek, which makes the number of 2,000 meter peaks inside the park 8 instead of 6. The park also houses around 200 peaks that reach 1,800 meters or higher. Due to the long walk up, the mountains are seldom climbed.

At 1,800 meters above sea-level lies the Pårte observatory, built in the early 1900s, because of the efforts of Axel Hamberg. The construction material had to be carried up on back.

There are around 100 glaciers in Sarek National Park. Together with a few other national parks in Sweden, Sarek National Park is the oldest national park in Europe (1909-1910).

External links

• Sarek National Park from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
  Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
  The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is a Swedish government agency responsible for proposing and implementing environmental policies...
  
  
• Trekking Sarek National Park