Sarek National Park

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

Typically September 4–September 21

Njupeskär's 93-meter drop, Sweden's tallest waterfall, cuts through a gorge below a birch-covered plateau in northern Dalarna. Mountain birch clinging to the rock, some barely shrub height and bent by wind, turns gold and rust through September; nearby grows Old Tjikko, a roughly 9,550-year-old spruce considered one of the world's oldest living trees.

Don’t miss: Njupeskär, Sweden's tallest waterfall · Old Tjikko, a 9,550-year-old spruce · wind-stunted mountain birch plateau

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