Orienteering
The area of Saariselkä and municipality of Inari have to offer amazing terrains for orienteering. The terrains are open and hilly fell-, hill-, and forest terrains.
The most amazing thing about the terrains in Inari municipality is the pure nature. Even during the regular weekly events it is possible to get into untouched nature where you can see different animals and beautiful nature spots.
The high fells and hills bring a lot of vertical meters into the tracks. The sceneries from the high places are amazing.
The tracks are often scenerywise really beautifull but technically not so difficult. The orienteerer gets to challenge himself in the long climbs and to enjoy the fabulous views and beautiful nature.
Network of control points
In the area of Saariselkä there are networks of control points that are permanently in the terrain. The other one is situated directly around the village of Saariselkä, the other one is in Kiilopää.
The network of control points in Saariselkä was built in the autumn 2013 and it consists of 34 control points. They are located between Saariselkä and Laanila in open terrain. The network has been built in cooperation between the municipality of Inari, sports club Lapin Sudet, and local orienteerers.
You can buy maps of the network from Partioaitta Saariselkä and from Urho Kekkonen National Park Customer Service.
Network of control points in Kiilopää
In the fell center of Kiilopää there is a network of 20 control points with electronic emit system. The maps and emit devices can be rented from the reception of Suomen Latu Kiilopää.
The control point in Kiilopää can be used all year around. Besides normal orienteering, in summer time the control points can be used for MTB-O training. In winter time it is possible to go searching for the control points on skiis or snowshoes.
Geocaching
In the surroundings of Saariselkä there are many geocaches. Geocaching is a sport where the idea is to search for treasures hidden by other enthusiasts with a map and a compass or with a GPS-device.
“Kiilopään keino” is geocaching trail with 67 caches. “Kiilopään keino” is located in fell center Kiilopää and surrounding.
The caches are hidden in the terrain acording to a difficulty scale which is 1-5. 1 stands for really easy which means that the cache is reachable with a wheel chair. 5 stands for extremely difficult which means that special equipment, for example climbimg equipment, are needed.
The difficulty of the cache depends on how well the cache is hidden. On the scale 1 the caches can be entirely visible while on te scale 4 it is much more difficult to find the cache.
You can find information about geocaches hidden by other people, report your own cache, and register online in geocaching.com.
The geocaches in Saariselkä are hidden in fabulous fell and forest sceneries so by geocaching it is possible to get to know the area.
Cache orienteering
Cache orienteering is an application of geocaching and orienteering. It is easy to start cache orienteering, because you don´t need to register for any service and you don’t need any tools or a GPS-device.
Cache orienteering is also a suitable activity for school groups!
The idea of cache orienteering is the same than in geocaching: There are hidden caches in the terrain which are supposed to be searched for. You only need a map and the tips. These will help you in finding the treasures.
Please note that the treasures should be left in the same place!
Cache orienteering is possible only in summer time, because of the snow. The caches in Saariselkä are on two different maps.
- 0-3 km from Saariselkä center
- 4-16 km from Saariselkä center (Kiilopää – Kakslauttanen)
The maps can be purchased, for example, from the Saariselkä Booking reception, Saariselkä INFO (Kiehinen in Siula) and hotels of the area.
Tip: It is possible to search for the caches on mountain bike!
Update 01/2022