There are several large, free-flowing rivers with impressive rapids in their natural state. The water is clean and clear. The waters flow into five different directions; into the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea in Finland and into the White Sea in Russia via Lakes Paanajärvi and Pääjärvi.

The Ice Age has carved the river valleys and smoothed the mountains into fells. Their slopes are covered with mostly coniferous forests whose typical species is the narrow Siberian spruce.