Badjelánnda / Padjelanta

The highlands

Badjelánnda – the highlands – is the Sami name for the land between Sarek’s high mountains and Norway’s fjords. Reindeer have migrated here for millennia to calve and graze. They are attracted by Badjelánnda’s herb-rich meadows and friendly mountains. The calcareous bedrock, the high precipitation and the late melting snow have created a vegetation that is not found in many other places in the mountains. It was this special flora that led to Padjelanta / Badjelánnda being named a national park in 1962.

It is also an area where people have lived for thousands of years. Everywhere there are traces of their lives, such as huts, fireplaces and traps. Today, Badjelánnda is home to three Sami villages. The largest residences are located by the wide mountain lakes Virihávrre, Vásstenjávrre and Sáluhávrre. On the plains around the lake, the sows calve at the end of May.

The popular and easy-going Badjelánndaleden trail also passes by. You who hike can often buy both smoked fish and freshly baked bread. The path follows in its places dry ridges and plateaus that the Icelandic ice has created. On your journey, you look out over a landscape that for generation after generation has welcomed us home.

In 1996, Badjelánnda became part of the Laponia World Heritage Site.