One Last Jaunt Before Hibernation

Höga Kusten, or the High Coast

From Wikipedia:

"The High Coast (Swedish: Höga kusten) is a part of the Swedish coast on the Gulf of Bothnia, situated in the municipalities of Kramfors,Härnösand and Örnsköldsvik and notable as a type area for research on post-glacial rebound and eustacy, in which the land rises as the weight of the glaciers melts off of it. This phenomenon was first recognised and studied there; since the last ice age the land has risen 800 m, which accounts for the unusual landscape with tall cliff formations.

UNESCO, while inscribing the area on the World Heritage List in 2000, remarked that "the High Coast site affords outstanding opportunities for the understanding of the important processes that formed the glaciated and land uplift areas of the Earth's surface".

We were supposed to see this place last summer but with all the other scheduled activities that we had, we put this off for our future nature journey. We had seen parts of this several times in the past while traveling southward through the coastal highway. Just by traversing the highway from Örnsköldsvik to Kramfors, we can see awesome sights along the way that belong to the High Coast, some of them I have posted previously.

I had thought that maybe it would be better to visit this place in autumn when the hills would be ablaze with fall colors. When fall finally came, it seemed like we had no more chance to drive around, but opportunity presented itself one Sunday in late September when the weather was fine and we didn't have much to do. As usual, we hit the road in a last-minute decision.

Along the highway, the already bare trees gave away tell-tales that we were too late, that perhaps there was nothing more left to see. But once we diverged from the highway and headed to the inner sections of the area, it looked like we came too early, as we observed that some vegetations hadn't completely turned to their autumnal splendor yet. Some parts, however, didn't need to have everything in gold, as they looked altogether majestic the way they were.

Here are some pictures I took along the way, most of which are drive-by shots.

To this place we catered to the call of our wanderlust before it goes to hibernation. And it's been a short but a soulful journey.