Lemmenjoki National Park

The biggest national park in Finland and one of the largest in Europe, 2,850 square kilometres, founded in 1956 and twice enlarged, bordering Anárjohka National Park across the Norwegian line. It takes its name from the eighty-kilometre river running through it. Around a hundred people still dig for gold here each summer on forty claims, though mechanised panning was banned in 2020 when transitional mining rights expired, leaving only hand methods. Most of the 21,100 people who come each year are backpackers, using sixty kilometres of marked path and more than ten free wilderness huts.