Söderåsens domänreservat, Naturreservat

The best time to visit the shingle fields in Söderåsen Nature Reserve is in spring, summer and fall. The area is 37 hectares and here you can walk along the path that runs across the reserve and over the shingle fields. The nature reserve offers exciting experiences in the forest and along old embankments. From Söderåsen, in the middle of the Hofors forest, 8,000 years ago you could have looked out over a body of water that stretched all the way to Russia. This was the western shore of the enormous Ancylus Lake, the forerunner of the Baltic Sea.

Waves crashed and roared, washing away sand and soil and leaving a clear shoreline of pebbles at the waterline. As the water receded, the mighty Söderåsen emerged and the sea wall now shows where the water stood, 160 meters above today's sea level.

The rest of the nature reserve consists of sparse pine forest. Heather, lingonberry, melon and various lichens grow here. You can find reindeer lichen, map lichen, window lichen and Icelandic lichen. Ragwort, which can survive in dry environments, is also found in the reserve.