Hinni Canyon

The Haanja Nature Park was founded in 1991 with the objective to protect the landscapes of the Haanja Upland and the local traditional lifestyle. The Hinni Canyon is located in the conservation zone with a strict protection regime and it aims at protecting the sandstone outcrop from the Devonian period, original in Estonia.

The area of the Haanja Nature Park is 16,903 hectares and it includes plenty of natural objects of interest, such as Estonia’s highest top Suur Munamägi (318.1 metres above the sea level), the hill with the biggest relative height Vällamägi (303.9 metres above the sea level, 84 metres from the bottom to the top), the bog with the thickest peat layer (17 metres), the deepest lake Rõuge Suurjärv (38 metres deep), the highest located body of water Lake Tuuljärv (257 metres above the sea level), the deepest primeval valley Kütiorg (up to 70 metres deep), and the River Piusa with the greatest slant (213 metres).

The Hinni Canyon is located in the Rõuge Primeval Valley in the north-western part of the Haanja Nature Park. To learn more about the Hinni Canyon as well as the Rõuge Primeval Valley, you should walk the RÕUGE HIKING TRAIL, which runs at the bottom and on the slopes of the Rõuge Primeval Valley from Ööbikuorg (Nightingale’s Valley) to the Hinni Canyon. The walk is about 10 km long and it can be taken in both directions.

HINNI CANYON – GRAND DEVONIAN NATURAL MONUMENT OF SANDSTONE

High walls of sandstone can be found in many South Estonia’s river valleys (Piusa, Peetri, Võhandu, Ahja, etc), but there are no other deep sandstone canyons. The Hinni canyon is a unique natural monument in Estonia. The Hinni canyon is a 15–20-metre-deep incision valley, dating back to the Devonian Age. The valley is intersected into the sandstone of the Sietin series of the lower part of the Gauja rock bed. The canyon is upstream 6–10 metres wide, but it quickly becomes as narrow as 3 metres. On the steep edges of the valley woven layer sandstone is exposed in the range of 200 metres and in 5-6-metrelong upright walls or cliffs in white or several yellow tones. Oxidizing of iron around quartz granules has given colour to many rusty sand layers. The woven layers refer to the fact that the sand sedimented and cemented in a shallow body of water for a very long time. The canyon is even more spectacular due to the crisscross-fallen trees and a small spring cave. At the bottom of the canyon the fast-stream Brook Enni runs, which discharges into Lake Kahrila in the Rõuge
Primeval Valley.