Enån, Naturreservat

Joggers, skiers, and dog walkers have been enjoying these grounds for a long time. The Enån River lies northeast of the town of Rättvik and spans about four kilometers of the valley through which the river flows. Photo: Dalarna County Administrative Board

What can you do here?

Rest areas, wind shelters, and fire pits

Rest areas, with or without wind shelters, are available in several places, but fire pits are only found at Springkällan and Lilla Kungsholstjärn.

Trails

Cycling

What makes this place unique?

A landscape shaped by dead ice and living water

The soil in the reserve consists of sand mixed with limestone. This material was carried here by water from the melting inland ice sheet. The sand and limestone settled here roughly 9,000 years ago.

A river winds its way through a beautiful valley. At times, it is as much as 20 meters deep and 250 meters wide. Here you’ll find fields of drifting sand and water-filled dead ice pits.

Kettle holes form after a giant chunk of ice becomes stranded on the ground. Soil and moraine then accumulate around it. Afterward, the ice melts away, leaving only the hole behind.

Among Bomb Fungi and Soft Pasque Flowers

The sand and limestone in the soil are vital for many of the rare species found in the reserve. There are as many as 30 endangered species here. Most of them are fungi. The most common are spiderweb fungi and spiny fungi.

The best-known of the endangered fungi is the bomb morel. It looks so distinctive that many people have learned to recognize it. If you see something that looks like a small chocolate-brown bomb, it’s probably that.

The pasque flower is found just about everywhere here and is also easy to recognize. It has pale pink flowers that are beautifully fuzzy. Linnaeus himself saw and described it on his journey through Dalarna in 1734. The pasqueflower is found mainly in the forests east of the Enån valley, where it blooms during the month of May.

Forest Today, Hayfields of the Past

Today, the Enån river valley floor is covered in forest. The southwesternmost parts feel like true primeval forest. There are plenty of large trees here, and many of them are dead. They either stand near the river or lie within the meandering watercourse.

Until about 100 years ago, however, large parts of the valley floor were treeless. The surrounding villages mowed the meadows and harvested the hay. Today, only a few scattered meadows remain. These are therefore very valuable. Here, the rare butterflies—the lesser bastard hawk-moth and the turquoise blue—flit about.

The Curious, Constantly Gushing Spring

In the northern part of the area lies the remarkable gushing spring. It is the result of a failed attempt to drill for oil in 1869. No oil was found, but an aquifer was discovered which, when punctured, created a natural fountain in the borehole. 150 years later, water is still gushing here.

It has long been known that oil can be found in sedimentary bedrock like this. Oil discoveries had, in fact, been made in similar bedrock in North America. Here at Draggån, the Dalabolaget company began drilling in April 1869. They found only small amounts of oil, but instead struck a very powerful water vein. The borehole was plugged, and ever since then, there has been a spring.