Tiveden 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

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