Day Trips from Rovaniemi: Korouoma Frozen Waterfalls and Ranua Wildlife Park

If you have three or four days in Rovaniemi and want to venture an hour beyond the city into deeper Lapland nature, two contrasting day trips, one south into spruce forest wildlife habitats and one south-east into a dramatic fracture canyon, run daily throughout winter and summer.

1. Korouoma Canyon & Frozen Waterfalls (1 hour 20 minutes south-east in Posio)

Located 105 kilometres south-east of Rovaniemi in the municipality of Posio, Korouoma is a 30-kilometre-long, 130-metre-deep fracture valley carved into the bedrock hundreds of millions of years ago. From December through mid-April, groundwater and streams trickling over the vertical cliff edges freeze solid into fourteen gigantic curtains of blue, green and white ice up to 60 metres tall, making Korouoma Finland's premier ice-climbing venue and one of Lapland's most sweeping winter hikes:

• The Koronjää Trail (5 km circular loop, 2.5 to 3.5 hours): starting from the upper Saukkovaara parking lot, the well-trodden snow trail descends steep wooden stairs into the bottom of the canyon, passing directly underneath the तीन biggest frozen waterfalls, Charlie Brown (Jaska Jokunen), Brown River (Ruskea virta) and Mammoth Fall (Mammuttiputous), where you can often watch ice climbers scaling the vertical blue pillars, before pausing at a riverside campfire shelter on the unfrozen Korojoki river and climbing back up to the rim.
• How to go: there is no public bus to the trailhead; book a 6-hour guided hiking day tour from Rovaniemi (which includes transport, microspikes/snowshoes and a campfire barbecue lunch) or drive yourself in a winter-tyred rental car.

2. Ranua Wildlife Park (1 hour south of Rovaniemi by Bus or Tour)

Eighty kilometres south of Rovaniemi along Highway 78, Ranua Wildlife Park (Ranua Zoo) is the northernmost wildlife park in the world. Rather than concrete cages, a 2.8-kilometre elevated wooden boardwalk winds through a natural pine forest where 50 Arctic and Nordic animal species live in large forest enclosures in their native winter climate: Finland's only polar bears, snowy owls, lynx, wolverines, grey wolves, Arctic foxes, musk oxen, moose and forest reindeer. In winter, animals are far more active in the snow than in summer heat. Reached easily by daily direct Matkahuolto coach from Rovaniemi Bus Station / Keskuskenttä (1 hour) or by half-day tour, with a Fazer chocolate factory outlet shop right at the entrance.