🇬🇧 Njakajaure (5km) - Summer

24 ECHOES

Location: Abisko, Norrbotten, Sweden

Guided by Nature

With this audio experience, walk alongside the Abiskjokk river through the canyon, explore the birch forest, and cross mires rich in biodiversity. Follow orange trail markers around a 5-kilometer loop, and put headphones in to learn about the history and geology of the village, find out more about the scientific research taking place here in the arctic, and search for some of Abisko's beautiful flora and fauna. This scenic and gentle route is popular with visitors in winter and summer, and is full of opportunities to see and photograph specialist alpine plants and to become a citizen scientist with iNaturalist.

Start Njakajaure outside STF Tourist Station

This audio-guided walk starts at the STF Tourist Station and follows a circular, 5-kilometer traile called Njakajaure, which can take an hour and a half. We’ll travel along the canyon at the base of Nuolja mountain, and back through an area of birch forest and mire.

1 sound

This is a human landscape

It is easy to think of this Arctic landscape as a wilderness, and that it is untouched by humans. But, this isn’t true. There may not be a busy city, but people have lived in these mountains for over 6,000 years.

1 sound

The Dam

The Kiruna to Narvik stretch passes through Abisko and you’re now standing in front of a relic from this time. Can you spot it?

1 sound

Botany and a researcher's transect

Over many years, researchers at the Abisko Scientific Research Station have been looking at how plants here are changing as the climate changes. You can upload photographs of plants that you see during this walk to the iNaturalist app, to help scientists understand how climate change is impacting these arctic species.

1 sound

Geology

This is a landscape shaped by natural processes, carved slowly over millennia. Look across to the other side of the canyon, can you see the pale streaks of marble in the layers of rock?

1 sound

Bumblebees

There are many different bumblebee species around Abisko. Plenty will be enjoying the flowers in these mire and heath habitats here, and some can even be seen foraging on flowers right at the summit of Nuolja on a sunny, windless day.

1 sound

Blueberries

This is a good spot to look out for the European blueberry, also known as Vaccinium myrtillus. In June and July, this small shrub plant has little pink flowers, and later in the autumn, it puts out little spherical blue fruits.

1 sound

Goldenrod

In late summer and autumn, between July and September, you are likely to see lots of tallish plants with dense bursts of small yellow flowers on one stem.

1 sound

Sami Landscape

Sami are indigenous people who have been living in parts of northern Europe for centuries. Previously, deep pits dug in the ground and covered with branches and bark and moss, were used to catch reindeer, which would be killed for their meat, hides, and antlers. Image: Elisa Ferrari

1 sound

Mires

Mires are important habitats. You can see that they host a variety of plant life, but they’re also important for forming peat.

1 sound

Trollius Europaeus

In June and July, this area is a great place to see one of the most famous plants found in Abisko National Park, the yellow globeflower, or Trollius europaeus. Trollius europaeus is also called the butterball. It's a beautiful yellow forb, meaning it's a tall flowering plant, and instead of the yellow flowers being outstretched, they form a ball. Here’s researcher Keith Larson from the Abisko Scientific Research Station, to tell you more about this plant. While you listen, see if you can find one.

1 sound

Plant hunting and iNaturalist

Here you might find plants that love these wet conditions, such as orchids, bog rosemary, bog billbery, scottish asphodel and net-leaved willow. You can take photos of the plants that you find to help you identify them later, or of course, you can upload them to iNaturalist.

1 sound

Meditationsplats

This is a great point to enjoy the view. Why not stop for fika, sandwiches, or a spot of mindful meditation? The photo on your phone now will show you what this landscape looks like in the winter.

1 sound

Birds and birch forest

Every year, the mountain birch forest is also great habitat for visiting birds. For an up-close chance to see some birds, you can join a bird ringing session by the lake at the Research Center.

1 sound

Permafrost

Many of these mires around Abisko sit on top of permafrost. Permafrost is ground that is frozen non-stop for at least two years. Some permafrost around the world has been frozen for centuries or longer.

1 sound

Njakajaure lake and fossilised trees

Researchers around Absiko have been diving into the cold waters around Abisko to find sunken trees that are up to 7,000 years old!

1 sound

Music inspired by the landscape

Micheal Palace is a professor at the University of New Hampshire who does fieldwork around Abisko every year, and creates electronic music inspired by the landscape.

1 sound

Orchids

This area is perfect for searching for plants, and is often filled with bright flowers and bees in the summer. Have you seen any orchids on this hike so far? It is a good place to spot them during the summer, and they’re a particular favourite of Botanist Leif Bersweden. Don't forget to share your photos with iNaturalist, to help researchers understand how the species here are changing.

2 sounds

Tree Line

Look up at the mountain. Can you see the treeline? Old photographs show how this has shifted upslope in recent decades. This is due to human activities such as climate change, and also installing the chairlift.

1 sound

Moss

Find out how researcher Lobke Korteleven works with mosses in Abisko.

1 sound

The mountain and reindeer

If you look up at the mountain from here, even in the middle of summer, you can see several patches of snow. In the winter, reindeer use their hooves to dig through snow to eat the lichens clinging to the rocks underneath. Image: Elisa Ferrari

1 sound