Day 641 - Äkäslompolo, Finland
An Unexpected Visit to a Winter Wonderland, Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park
We spent the late morning and early afternoon determined to find the dog sledding camp that Tatiana and Elizabeth had told us about in Rovaniemi.
We failed.
We had the name, Älaskero right, but not an exact address and after driving 25 miles ended up in the middle of a National Park. No dogs, but a whole lot of trees and snow. Our GPS told us we'd have to tromp five miles to get to the exact latitude and longitude of Älaskero, and the days were so short on both ends that wasn't going happen. I had images of us slogging through knee deep snow as the twilight set in, wolves howling as they scented a couple of nice American meals on the hoof.
The campsite and park where we had driven, which was no doubt perfect for summer camping, was bereft of humans. That only made the views better. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the snow was as pristine and untouched as the mountains of Antarctica.
I plodded around in knee-deep snow and took some pictures, but we never did find the dog camp. It was 2:30 in the afternoon and the sun was already low so we started heading back to Levi.
The pictures you see were of the place where we got lost (some true Christmas cards), and a couple of non-flying reindeer we came across. The next day we’d give the search for the dog sledding camp another try.
