Nuuksio National Park

Climate

Nuuksio's climate is the same as Helsinki's: lovely summers, wet spring and fall, brutal winters. The high season is obviously summer, although mushroom pickers continue to tramp the trails well into the fall and hardcore cross-country skiers venture within in the winter.

Understand

Covering an area of only 45 square kilometers, Nuuksio is a pint-sized marvel.

Flora and fauna

The Siberian Flying Squirrel Liito-orava is official park emblem, but being nocturnal and living high up in the treetops, it's very difficult to spot. The Haukkalampi info center has an exhibit about the critter and even gives handy tips on how to spot its poo.

Landscape

Nuuksio's landscape is archetypically Finnish: conifer and birch forests, forty-three lakes, small swamps between them and gentle rolling hills, sometimes covered in moss, sometimes with the granite bedrock exposed where the vast ice sheets of the last ice age scraped them clean. There are plenty of quiet spots of beauty, but don't expect jaw-dropping gorges or soaring mountains good advice for traveling anywhere in Finland, that.

History

Established only in 1994, Nuuksio is one of Finland's newest national parks, set up to ensure that a piece of pristine wilderness is kept within striking distance of the capital. Its location so close to a major city is unusual, and due mostly to the fact that the rocky and wet terrain was unsuitable for farming or other development.