The Savojärvi Loop: Kurjenrahka’s Most Beautiful Trail
I had been waiting for quite a while for a day when all of the following elements would line up at once: fine weather, a weekday, good company, a reason to be in Turku, and a free schedule. When such a day finally arrived, I knew exactly what to do: I would walk the route said to be the finest in Kurjenrahka National Park, the Savojärvi loop. In the end, the trail turned out to be considerably more beautiful than I had dared to expect.
The Savojärvi loop
- Loop trail 6.3 km
- Starting point on the map
- Campfire site: the Kurjenpesä cooking shelter near the starting point
- Accessible: for the first stretch (Karpalopolku, 1.7 km, partly shares the same route)
- Arriving by car: Kuhankuonontie 67, Pöytyä
- Arriving by public transport: not possible
A weekday was an important part of the equation, since this wasn’t our first attempt to walk the Savojärvi loop. A few years back, my husband and I tried to come on a beautiful autumn Sunday, and it turned out that we couldn’t find a free parking spot anywhere, even after trying several different parking options. Every square metre suited to parking already had someone else’s car on it, and we gave up and went home.
This time things were different. It was an autumn Tuesday, sunny, with fair-weather clouds racing across the sky and no threat of rain. A field of sunflowers had been lighting up the landscape in competition with the sun itself as we drove the half hour from Turku to the Kurjenpesä parking area along a quiet country road. There were three cars in the parking area, and no people were to be seen or heard anywhere. Good.
Since I had a somewhat stressful hospital visit behind me, it felt especially good to step out of the car into the middle of a murmuring forest. I filled my lungs with the fresh, calming air of nature, closed my eyes, and let the hum of the spruces fill my mind. Spending time in nature does a world of good for your health even in everyday life, but the drab and nerve-wracking atmosphere of the hospital, still fresh in my mind, now created the strongest possible contrast to how relaxing, safe, and hopeful an environment nature is.
We set off on the trail, which at first was a wide crushed-stone path through tall, dark-toned forest. The wind hummed overhead and had scattered a layer of yellow autumn leaves across the forest floor, covering the green moss. The trail wound down onto a bog, where a few people appeared to be out picking berries. Could the cranberries really already be ripe?
At the start, the trail was accessible, and for a short stretch it actually runs along the same route as the accessible Karpalopolku (‘Cranberry trail’ 1.7 km). Soon, though, the wide wooden path narrowed underfoot into thin duckboards, which led us onward, sometimes winding, sometimes running perfectly straight. On a trail like this, it’s easy to sink into your own little bubble and drift into a relaxing flow state. My husband and I chatted about this and that, enjoying the beautiful weather, the scents of the bog, and our own peace and quiet. After a while, the true star of the route, Savojärvi lake, began to glimmer at the edge of the bog.
The loop otherwise moves through very wilderness-like scenery, but roughly at its halfway point it makes a brief detour onto a gravel road and into the yard by Savojärvi’s shore, a somewhat more built-up spot. The kiosk looked like it had already closed for the summer, and there wasn’t a soul to be seen by the shore either. It took us a moment to find the right spot where the hiking trail continued onward. Once we found it, we carried on along the duckboards, back out onto the bog. On this side of the lake, the bog seemed even more colourful than at the start.
We finally reached the shore of Savojärvi lake. Whenever I’ve seen photos from this trail, they’ve typically shown pine trees leaning more or less toward the lake from the shore. And sure enough, there were plenty of them here too. The duckboards continued along the shoreline, but the worn ground revealed that many visitors have wanted to take in the view right from the water’s edge.
The untouched, wilderness-like quality of the landscape managed to catch me off guard. Not just here, but throughout almost the entire loop. It felt as though I was somewhere far more remote than just half an hour from Turku city.
My husband spotted a tiny adder on the ground. The pine cone in the picture gives some sense of scale, the creature was just about the size of a pen. It didn’t hiss, but watched alertly as it made for the shelter of a tree root, away from us frightening humans. I seem to recall hearing that a reddish-brown adder is usually a female. This particular individual, at least, had its camouflage down perfectly.
The trail continued along the shore for a long stretch. There was plenty of lake scenery and glittering flashes of sunlight on the waves to savour. The water was very dark, and the leaves of the water lilies danced with the gentle motion of the waves. It was a beautiful sight, one I wanted to take in with my whole heart and press firmly into memory, since over time the frost wraps everything like this back into its grip, and the water won’t be free again for perhaps many months.
The abundance of dead standing pines, the reddish autumn ground cover, the crowberries, and the untouched shoreline brought to mind a breath of Lapland. There seemed to be plenty of cranberries, though I personally wouldn’t have called them quite ripe enough for picking yet. Still, I enjoyed simply looking at their red cheeks, as well as the autumn colours of the bog bilberry, blueberry, and sphagnum moss. The bog rosemary had also changed into orange and gave off a strong scent.
A small stream trickled quietly from the bog into the lake, hidden among tufts of shaggy grass.
Most of the loop was now behind us, and the last remnants of the hospital had dropped away from my mind somewhere into the depths of the bog and the lake. I felt strong, good, and confident. The effect of nature on the mind is well documented, but it’s easiest to believe once you’ve experienced it for yourself, concretely. That’s also why I was glad that the area offered the accessible Karpalopolku as an option, it could work well for walking with children and grandparents, for instance, if the full Savojärvi loop isn’t possible for them. The health and mental health benefits of nature belong to everyone.
In Mäntysaari, the trail reaches a small rocky hillock by the shore. From here, the water was easy to look at, and to touch. The stones resting by the shore looked sharp and had taken on a yellowish-green coat of algae, swaying with the waves as if we were out at sea. Because the lake’s water was almost black, the stones disappeared from view even in shallow water. We stood for a moment, listening to the sound of the water churning around the stones.
The loop was now nearing its end, and it was only in the very last stretch that it dipped back into the forest, away from the lake views.
There were still some truly lovely stretches ahead, though, passing through reeds and a grassy bog and along a root-strewn forest path, before we reached the yard of the Kurjenpesä nature hut near the parking area. The view below was one of my favourites from the whole loop.
There was no one to be seen around the Kurjenpesä nature hut. We had such a fierce craving for pizza that by this point we didn’t really do much more looking around. I did notice a small blue tent sitting alone in the corner of the camping area. The area also has a water point, a dry toilet, and a cooking shelter, where day hikers can also prepare food before or after their trip, if they wish.
Read next
The Best Sea View in Turku: Head to Kuuva on Ruissalo
What to do in Finland’s snowless winter? These Are the Things I Would Choose Myself
Hiking Through Autumn Wonders in Teijo National Park, Salo
Related Content
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!