These stunning natural snow formations took on a familiar shape in Finland's Riisitunturi National Park earlier this month. Russian photographer Andrey Bazanov trekked through snow, wind and minus 11 temperatures in Lapland to snap these wild photos. 

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"I was stunned when I saw the snow formation because I felt as if I was facing a real dinosaur," Bazanov told Caters News Agency. "It's a fantastic feeling to be among all those unearthly snow figures." 

Bazanov said that seeing shots from other photographers inspired him to travel to Lapland to photograph the landscape. The photographer drove more than 620 miles to visit the park.

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In December, Helsinki Times reported that the region is seeing a tourism boom thanks to social media and photography. 

"The modern-day traveller is prepared to travel to far-off desinations specifically in order to take a photo or selfie against a stunning backdrop, such as a sky illuminated by northern lights, indicate data collected by House of Lapland, the official marketing and communications agency for Finnish Lapland," the article stated. 

Bazanov said the trip was worth the journey. Since Lapland is dark during much of the winter, he had to wait a week for some sunlight to make the photographs possible. 

"The main difficulty was the temperature, as it was very hard to use gloves and my camera battery exhausted faster, so the shooting required some thorough preparation," he said. 

Click through the slideshow above to see images of the phenomenon captured by Bazanov.

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