Korouoma Canyon, Winter Wonderland in Lapland, Finland

Korouoma is about 30 kilometres long, few hundred metres wide and up to 130 m deep canyon at Posio, Finland. The entire area is a natural reserve. At the bottom of the canyon there's Korojoki River, which ends up to Kemijoki River. It is around 100 km from Finland-Russian boarder and already inside the arctic circle.There are plenty of species in varied nature of Korouoma. Some of species found are rare. Korouoma offers great opportunities for hiking, watching the nature, fishing and reviewing the cultural history of usage of nature at the area. Part of Korouoma's distinctive nature are the clifs both sides of it, where several streams freeze during the winter forming huge ice formations. Because of these ice formations Korouoma is known as the best ice climbing location in Finland. There are some climbing routes that can be used during the summer time as well. (Source: Wikipedia)

In December 26, we 5 people travelled to Korouma canyon from Rovaniemi. It is about 100 km from the Rovaniemi. We started our hiking before sunrise. In December the sun rises around 11.20 in the morning and sets around 13.25. So we had only 2 hours of daytime to hike. It was very nice but extreme cold winter morning. Temperature was around -30 °C. Anyway, we are adventurous people so we like to hike in extreme weather too.

Whole area is already covered by half a meter of snow. Nevertheless, at a glance it looks just amazing. We started to discover more and more beauty over time.

Frosty trees merge with sky

A small river is flowing through the canyon and it is almost covered by snow. Only narrow water flow is visible

Our small hiking group is descending from the hill toward the canyon

Frozen waterfalls, in one word just amazing. Total 11 waterfalls in this area and we saw 4 of them. Each of the waterfall has stunning and breathtaking beauty

Some climbers were doing ice climbing on frozen waterfall

During our hike, we also see wild Reindeer. I am lucky enough to capture her picture before hiding inside the frozen bush

Whitish nature with reddish sky creates a mystic atmosphere

Frozen wooden bridge over the river

Natural snow gate

It was great experience for me to hike at -30 °C in such winter wonderland. Middle of our hiking we made bonfire that helped us to become warm. We drank tea and toasted bread on fire and filled up our stomach. After 3 hours of extreme hiking finally we reached to our car and returned back to Rovaniemi.