About Loktajohka Waterfall
The Loktajohka Waterfall (also spelled Låktatjåkka) was kind of an inadvertent waterfall encounter when I was driving from Narvik to pursue the Silverfallet by Bjorkliden.
However, during the drive, I simply couldn’t ignore any longer the scenery through cross-border plateau (shared between Norway and Sweden).
It compelled me to extend my visit here by making more frequent stops.
Particularly since the Loktajohka Stream was signposted, that pretty much closed the deal for me as I realized that there was a hike to get a more intimate look at the waterfall on the Loktajohka Stream.
Indeed, if not for this chain of events and thought process, this would just be another miscellaneous roadside waterfall and this page wouldn’t have been written.
Obscure Waterfall
To my knowledge, not much has been written about this particular waterfall even though I noticed this waterfall from the busy and fast-moving E10 road between Narvik, Norway and Kiruna, Sweden.
In addition to its fairly easily-seen location, I noticed signage as well as a faint-but-established trail leading closer to the falls.
It turned out that this trail followed the Loktajohka Stream, and it happened to go towards the highest mountain cabin in Sweden at Låktatjåkko (said to be 1230m altitude).
While that hike involves a much longer mountain trek with some degree of self-sufficiency, I only needed to go uphill about 700m to get up to the foot of the main drop of the Loktajohka Waterfall.
And despite all of these signs of importance and notoriety, the falls still seems to have somewhat of an obscure character about it as evidenced by its lack of presence in the literature.
Whatever the case, I guess this aspect allowed me to enjoy the experience of visiting this waterfall alone.
Experiencing the Loktajohka Waterfall
From the nearest signed pullout (see directions below), I took to the south side of the E10 and followed a faint path following the sign saying “Rallarvägen Loktajohka”.
After initially going through a grove of short trees, the path ascended to alongside the Loktajohka Stream before reaching a footbridge over the stream next to what appeared to be shelters or relics.
I wasn’t sure what they were there for, but they appeared to have gotten some recent use, and I doubted there was something historical about them.
Beyond the bridge, the trail continued to ascend up to railroad tracks.
I wasn’t sure if the train stops here, but I did see the train often enough during this hike to know that the railway was fairly active.
This railway was once part of the Navvy Road West, which was part of the larger Navvy Road that served an important role as a supply route between near Abisko National Park to Rombaksbotn in Norway.
Beyond the railroad tracks, the trail continued to follow the rushing Loktajohka before veering more to the left to climb steeply up a hill.
At the top of this hill, I managed to get a nice panorama that included a satisfying view of the Loktajohka Waterfall as well as views in the opposite direction towards lakes as well as the attractive plateau that the E10 passed through.
I couldn’t linger here for too long, however, because I quickly found out that there were many mosquitos swarming around here.
Continuing further uphill on the semi-muddy trail, I eventually got to the foot of the main drop of the Loktajohka Waterfall in another 120m.
From this perspective, the falls looked a lot shorter due to its cascading nature.
Personally, I think the falls was most attractive when seen from further away (e.g. that bluff where I was getting swarmed by mozzies).
After having my fill of the falls, I then descended back downhill to the E10 while enjoying the views along the way.
Overall, I spent about 40 minutes away from the car, and my GPS logs said I covered about 1.5km round trip.
Authorities
The Loktajohka Waterfall was near the village of Björkliden, which belonged to the municipality of Kiruna in Norrbotten County, Sweden. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you may want to try the local municipality website.
Since I made my drive from Narvik, I’ll describe the driving directions from there.
So from the city, the most straightward way (i.e. paying tolls) would be to headed north on the E6 for a little over 7km as the road crosses over the long bridge over the Rombaken.
Shortly after the bridge, the E6 junctioned with the E10, where I then turned right to go onto another toll section shortly thereafter.
From there, I’d follow the E10 for about 49km (crossing the border after about 34km).
By that point, there was a modest-sized pullout on the left side of the road by a “P” sign. On the opposite side, there was a smaller sign pointing the way to the Rallarvägen Loktajohka.
Overall, this drive took me less than an hour though I was tempted to make many stops along the way.
Going in the opposite direction, Kiruna would require me to drive northwest on the E10 for about 107km (taking over an hour).
It was about 18km further west of Silverfallet.
For geographic context, Björkliden was about 71km (about an hour drive) east of Narvik, Norway, and 104km (about 75 minutes drive) northwest of Kiruna.
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Sweep showing train tracks and downstream scenery before panning over to the cascading waterfalls as seen from a bluff
Downstream to upstream sweep from the misty base of the main drop of the falls
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