Day 6: Saariselkä

It felt a bit milder when we stepped outside the cabin this morning and the thermometer on the wall confirmed that it was only(!) around minus 14. Our plan for today was to re-do the hike up Kaunispää hill from Tuesday, so we set off in that direction.

The start of the walk was much easier now that snow had been bulldozed away from the entrance.

The rest of the walk actually felt more difficult, though.

It seemed to have snowed quite a bit overnight and so we were now walking in fresh snow.

As with the previous day we passed lots of beautiful snow-covered trees.

As we walked we began to see the sky turning pink in the distance.

At first the colour was very faint, but it gradually started to become stronger.

It was around half past ten by this point, so we were witnessing the beginnings of sunrise.

The colours were stronger in real life than they appear on the camera.

I was enjoying the views so much that at one point I accidentally stepped off the path while taking a photo

The snow was so deep that it went all the way up my thigh!

It was worth it for the photo though

The view was so amazing that we couldn't resist capturing it in a video too

We continued to gradually make our way up the hill, following the trail.

This was the point at which we'd felt absolutely frozen the other day. Today felt a lot warmer because there was no wind.

The colours of the sunrise were getting progressively brighter and brighter as time went on.

Eventually we caught sight of the the top of the hill on the horizon. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere... probably because we were in the middle of nowhere

The final bit of the walk was particularly tiring as we walked up a steep slope of fresh snow.

The view in one direction was completely dominated by the sun...

...while in the other direction all we could see was miles and miles of snowy wilderness.

We reached the top and went inside the restaurant to warm up.

We decided to treat ourselves to lunch while we were here

By the time we'd finished eating the sun looked like it had risen as high as it was going to get.

We started walking back down and unexpectedly found the return route a lot easier than anticipated.

Obviously, walking downhill was a lot easier anyway. But it seemed particularly easy this time around because while we'd been inside the restaurant, a machine had been along to flatten down the path.