Why a national park?

Rago National Park was protected as a national park on the 22nd of January 1971 to represent an untouched northern mountainous landscape with unique wildlife, bordering the Swedish national park Padjelanta.

Rago is a small national park of 171 km² in the municipality of Sørfold. Together with the national parks of Padjelanta, Sarek og Stora Sjöfallet in Sweden, Rago forms one of the largest areas of intervention-free nature in Europe.

Photo: Hanne Etnestad
Photo: Marius Saunders

What is allowed?

You can move about freely and sleep wherever you want within the national park, and you are welcome to enjoy simple outdoors activities. The “allemannsrett” (“freedom to roam”) allows you to go where you please in the park, but it also requires you to move about responsibly. Be considerate towards nature and other hikers by bringing your trash with you out of the national park. That includes not leaving trash in the cabins or at the outhouses of the national park.

You may pick berries and edible mushrooms, but all other plants, living or dead, are protected within the national park. The older pine forest up towards and around Storskogvatnet is very valuable for the biodiversity of the national park and must not be used as firewood. Especially the dead, silver pine trees of the national park, both the standing and fallen individuals, must be left alone. The forests is regarded as unique in a national context due to its pristine nature and is the home to plenty of rare species of insects and wood-dwelling fungi. You may only use fallen sticks and smaller branches as firewood.

You may only hunt ptarmigan, hare, american mink and red fox in Rago National Park. You may fish in all the waters of the national park, if you have a prepaid fishing card and follow local fishing rules Opens in new tab. Hunting and fishing cards are administered by Statskog and can be bought at inatur.no.

IKKE RELEVANT PÅ ENGELSK Ta gjerne en titt på verneforskriften til Rago nasjonalpark Opens in new tab,hvis du vite mer om hva som er lov og ikke i nasjonalparken.

Protected areas around Rago National Park

Padjelanta / Badjelánnda National Park Opens in new tab (Sweden) (1998 km2) is an open mountain landscape with great lakes and a great diversity of plants and animals.

Sjunkhatten National Park Opens in new tab (417 km2) – the Children’s National Park, is a beautiful and varied landscape, ranging from fjords to mountains.

Laksågaosen nature reserve Opens in new tab (0.158 km2) is a valuable beach area with rare vegatation types and its affiliated wildlife.

Veikdalen nature reserve Opens in new tab (3.233 km2) has old growth like mountain pine forest with a varied forest floor vegetation and plenty of dead wood.

Trolldalsvatnet nature reserve Opens in new tab (0.155 km2) is a varied bog and wetland area which serves as a nesting and migratory biotope for a number of bird species.

Padjelanta National Park – Photo: Laponiatjuottjudus