Sweden's national parks

Wildflowers and the summer home of reindeers

Explore a mountain landscape shaped by lakes, wetlands and vast open heaths, surrounded by true alpine tundra. This is nature in its original form – quiet, wide open and endlessly scenic.

Established

1962

County

Norrbotten

About Padjelanta/Badjelánnda National Park

Padjelanta – Badjelánnda in Sámi – is a landscape of sweeping high plateaus and large mountain lakes. The terrain is open and gently rounded, unlike the dramatic peaks of neighbouring Sarek. Here, you wander through rich flower meadows and have the chance to see many of the bird species that thrive on the open mountain heaths and around the clear, cold lakes.

Padjelanta/Badjelánnda is Sweden’s largest national park by area. The name is Sámi and means “the upper land”. Gentle mountains and large lakes are framed by snow‑covered peaks: Sarek in the east and Sulidälbmá in the west, together with the Norwegian border mountains.

The Padjelanta/Badjelánnda‑leden runs along the entire national park, and in some parts of the park the Nordkalottleden also passes through. Padjelanta/Badjelánnda‑leden is known for being easy to hike, and the cabins are placed at distances suitable for daily stages. At many visten, hikers can buy fresh fish and newly baked bread.

Here in the area, the Sámi summer settlements lie in a row along the large lakes. The national park is also the reindeer's summer grazing land. If you are lucky, you may see one of the Sámi communities Duorbbun, Jåhkågasska tjiellde or Sirges gathering the reindeer for calf‑marking during the light summer nights.

Padjelanta/Badjelánnda is part of the Laponia World Heritage Site, recognised for its outstanding natural and cultural values.