The Tuntsa wilderness has become a byword in several respects. The Tuntsajoki river became famous in its day through the stories of wilderness writer A.E. Järvinen. Only the headwaters of the Tuntsajoki now lie within Finland's borders. The magnificent lower reaches of the river became part of the then Soviet Union when roughly half of Salla municipality was permanently ceded to the Soviet Union as a result of the war.
The Tuntsa wilderness is also widely known for the Tuntsa fire. A forest fire that raged at Tuntsa in 1960 destroyed approximately 20,000 hectares of forest. The post-fire "charcoal logging" operation lasted about five years, during which the timber from the fire area was harvested and floated from the then roadless backcountry to industrial sites. The clearing of the Naruskajoki for floating was a consequence of this fire. A hint worth mentioning: the Salla War and Reconstruction Museum in Salla has excellent material about this monumental undertaking.
The road network built during the charcoal logging era now makes it possible to drive by car, at least in the frost-free season, to the most remote corners of the Tuntsa wilderness. The uninhabited backcountry is thus easily accessible even for those who cannot, for example, explore the wilderness with a backpack.
The headwaters of the Tuntsajoki are a popular lure-fishing destination. About ten kilometres of this river water, before it heads towards Russian Federation territory, are fishable. This river section also has good fireplace rest stops for hikers and anglers. Accessibility is excellent as the road follows the riverbanks.
The Tuntsa backcountry is also excellent hunting territory. From roughly the latitude of Lake Naruskajärvi northwards, this Metsähallitus-managed area is renowned for forest grouse hunting, elk hunting and large predator hunting. There are hundreds of square kilometres of wilderness.
The Tuntsa bogs are popular with cloudberry pickers. The area has a large number of elevated bog habitats, from which almost every summer at least some escape the cloudberry blights — the most common of which is frost. On elevated bogs, cloudberries flower late in summer, when frosts are rarer than in early summer. The fire area's fell regions are also excellent blueberry and lingonberry terrain. In a good berry year, millions of kilograms of berries are left unpicked at Tuntsa because not all berry patches can be reached by vehicle. Generally, there are enough berries of all kinds for everyone in a good year. In the worst year it can happen that nobody gets anything, when nature shows its harshest conditions.
There is no point rushing a visit to the Tuntsa wilderness. A day is not enough to see much — you should allow at least a few days to get anything out of the area. As a rule, everyone who visits Tuntsa loses their heart to it, more or less.