Wilderness Road Travel Guide

The Wilderness Road — Vildmarksvägen in Swedish — is a purpose-built tourist route that threads a roughly 360–500 km loop through the mountains between Jämtland and Lapland, with the settlement and lake of Stora Blåsjön one of its notable waypoints. The road climbs to alpine heights as it crosses the Stekenjokk plateau, rising above the tree line into open heathlands and lichen-strewn boulder fields; the contrast between the sheltered forest valleys and the windswept plateau is a defining characteristic of the whole journey.

Stora Blåsjön (the Big Blue Lake) sits in a dramatic bowl of rugged peaks and offers clear, cold water reflected against high ridgelines; the lake and its surroundings support trout and char and are threaded with hiking trails and small streams. Moving along the Wilderness Road you encounter a string of geological attractions — stair-step rapids, narrow gorges and plunging waterfalls — where meltwater and rivers have cut through ancient bedrock, producing viewpoints that frame the raw power of northern waterways.

The highest sections of the Wilderness Road are strongly seasonal: heavy snowfall closes the Stekenjokk stretch for much of the year, and when the road is open the landscape can still be subject to sudden weather shifts. Above the tree line, tundra vegetation, nesting bird populations and traditional reindeer herding routes all coexist, and local regulations and seasonal protections are in place to limit disturbance. This seasonal rhythm—closed in deep winter and open in summer—shapes how the route is experienced and explains its sense of remoteness.

Although the area feels overwhelmingly wild, human history is present in small ways: mountain hamlets, reindeer herding camps, and traces of former mining activity have shaped the route’s development. Traditional Sámi use of the highlands for reindeer grazing remains an important part of the cultural landscape, and small villages and churches along the way offer a glimpse of how people live and work in this northern environment.

The Wilderness Road is designed for leisurely exploration by car, camper or motorcycle, with frequent informal pullovers for short hikes, photography and angling. Around Stora Blåsjön you can paddle, fish, picnic by the water and take short alpine walks straight from the parking areas; further along the route there are showpiece sites such as deep canyons, glacier-smoothed plateaus and cave systems that reward guided visits or simple, cautious curiosity.

Drive the Wilderness Road and you’ll feel the landscape alternating between intimate forested valleys and expansive, exposed highlands. The route’s character is austere rather than polished: service points are sparse between communities, viewpoints open onto long empty distances, and the silence up on the plateau emphasises just how remote this part of Sweden is. That austere quality is the road’s appeal — a way to move through a broad, largely intact northern landscape with the freedom to stop, listen and look.