Qualla: Junkerdal National Park

Junkerdal National Park: Introduction

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mr. Trond Henningsen, CC BY-SA 3.0. Somewhere in Junkerdal there is a snow fleabane growing further south than snow fleabane grows anywhere else. So is a bullrush sedge, and so is an alpine arnica. These are Arctic plants, built for ground that spends most of the year frozen, and this valley on the Norwegian side of the Swedish border is where their range gives out. Cross the fells southward and they are simply gone. Junkerdal National Park protects 682 square kilometres of that ground. It was established in 2004, though the botanical case for protecting this valley had been made and won nearly eighty years earlier.

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Image: Mr. Trond Henningsen | CC BY-SA 3.0

Junkerdal National Park: A Botanist's Mountain

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Orcaborealis, CC BY-SA 3.0. The park's fame rests on flora, which is an unusual thing for a Norwegian national park - most of them are sold on glaciers and fjords. Down low, Junkerdal is forested. Higher up, the mountains and plateaus carry an extraordinary density of arctic-alpine species, several of them ...

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Image: Orcaborealis | CC BY-SA 3.0

Junkerdal National Park: Junkerdalsura

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit James Heilman, CC BY-SA 4.0. The park's reputation was built next door. Junkerdalsura is the steep scree slope on the northern side of the gorge where Junkerdalen narrows, and its exceptionally rich plant life was recognised early enough that protection came in stages from 1928 and 1935 - among the first bot...

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Image: James Heilman | CC BY-SA 4.0

Junkerdal National Park: Wolverine Country

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ximonic, Simo Räsänen, CC BY-SA 3.0. Three of Norway's four large carnivores are here. Wolverines den in the high country, lynx move through the forest below, and brown bears range across the border - a moose hunt in these mountains occasionally turns into an unplanned encounter with one. Moose and reindeer are both...

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Image: Ximonic, Simo Räsänen | CC BY-SA 3.0

Junkerdal National Park: The Junker

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Foto. Geir Tore Mjønes, CC BY-SA 3.0. The name means the young nobleman's valley - junker from a medieval German word for a nobleman's son, dal for valley - and tradition attaches it to a specific man. Preben von Ahnen (1606-1675) was a Danish-Norwegian official who served twenty years as bailiff and district governo...

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Image: Foto. Geir Tore Mjønes | CC BY-SA 3.0

Junkerdal National Park: Getting In

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frankemann, CC BY-SA 4.0. The park spreads across Saltdal and Fauske municipalities and runs up against the Swedish border, reaching north toward the old mining town of Sulitjelma. National Road 77 turns off the E6 at Storjord and follows Junkerdalen east to Sweden, which makes this one of the more access...

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Image: Frankemann | CC BY-SA 4.0