Fulufjället National Park

Typically August 28–September 10

Sweden's most demanding national park has no marked trails, no bridges, and no huts, just 1,970 square kilometers of glacier-hung peaks and the braided delta of the Rapa Valley. Dwarf birch and willow on the tundra turn first, often by late August, with taller subalpine birch following into September as the first snow dusts Sarektjåkkå's 2,089-meter summit.

Don’t miss: Rapa Valley's braided delta · Sarektjåkkå, Sweden's second-highest peak · no marked trails or bridges

Pine trees several hundred years old cover this rocky ridge between lakes Vänern and Vättern, split by rift valleys jammed with glacial boulders the size of houses. Swedish folklore held the forest sheltered trolls and outlaws hiding from the law; 34 kilometers of marked trail now wind through birch, aspen and rowan that color through October.

Don’t miss: old-growth pine forest never logged · boulder-choked rift valleys · 34 km of marked trails

Twenty kilometers south of central Stockholm, Scots pines up to 400 years old cover ridges above an old rift valley, one of the largest tracts of untouched forest left in southern Sweden. Aspen, birch and alder scattered among the conifers color through September and into October along Barnvagnsslingan, a stroller-friendly 5-kilometer loop past lakes and wetland.

Don’t miss: 400-year-old Scots pines · glacial rift-valley terrain · Barnvagnsslingan lake loop