Nature places in Europe
Those with a few days on their hands will be well-rewarded if they make the effort to get out of Perm and explore the surrounding area, as many beautiful spots in the Ural Mountains can be visited on a day trip. A good place to start is Usva, a lovely village of traditional wooden cottages spread out on the banks of a river and surrounded by taiga forests. From here you can walk along the river bank to a natural 150 m stone column protruding into the air, known as Chyortovy Palets ('Devil's Finger'). From Usva you can also access Kamenny Gorod ('Stone City'), a large area in the forest strewn with huge boulders and monoliths. Climbing the tallest gives you a spectacular view of the surrounding taiga forest. Other attractions near Perm include perhaps the best-preserved of Stalin's gulag concentration camps, Perm 36, and the Kungur Ice Cave. Well equipped for excursions, these grottos receive 100,000 tourists a year who come to see the ice formations within, both natural and man-made. The best time to visit is March or April when there is still a lot of ice left over from winter.
The towering, oft-smoking Klyuchevskaya Sopka is the Northern Hemisphere's tallest active volcano (4,750 m). You might therefore expect the nearby village of Klyuchi to be at least slightly geared towards tourism. Not so. This collection of wooden cottages and dirt lanes is situated inside a closed area requiring a permit to enter and has not a single hotel, although a vulcanologist who has lived and worked here for over 35 years has a couple of dormitory rooms he rents out to the odd traveller that passes through. From the village there is a track leading to a vulcanologists' cabin at the base of the volcano. In winter you will probably need skis or a snowmobile to reach it though and in summer there are lots of bears in the area, so watch out! One bus a day makes the ten-hour journey to Klyuchi from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky along a road that starts off as low quality asphalt before petering out into a dirt track. On the way there is a river with no bridge: in winter the bus drives across the ice, in summer there is a ferry and for a while in spring and autumn neither bus nor ferry can cross!
Glaskogen Nature Reserve is not a national park, so the nature is not untouched. Old forest with trees older than 200 years is mix with open farmland, which has been agricultural for centuries. However, Glaskogen has a lot of the same attractions as the protected parks. The many lakes are popular for canoeing and kayaking, and the hiking trail system is expansive (more than 300 km of trails) with campites.
Store Mosse (Big Marsh) is the largest marsh area in southern Sweden. The national park covers almost 77 km2 of bogs, lakes, forest and pastures. It's a great place for bird watching, particularly from the lookout tower at the visitor center. There are several walking trails (more than 40 km in total), partly on board walks over the bog.
Tiveden is a forest-covered and dramatically rocky national park with many deep blue lakes. It's a very organized park with campsites and several well-marked trails. Expect lots of roots and rocks on the hikes. The campsites are all located near one of the many lakes, and are well-maintained with shelters and fireplaces with free pre-chopped firewood. Some campsites have composting toilets and there is even a lake beach at the campsite Entré Vitsand.