The Aukštumala nature trail is a mysterious place where travellers have the rare chance to get to know a raised bog famous all over the world, learn about its characteristic plants and animals, see the landscape, experience the distinctive and unrepeatable beauty of the bog, and understand that a bog is not just a squelching expanse with bottomless, treacherous pools lying in wait for tourists, but also one of the few remaining refuges for very rare plants and animals. The vast Aukštumala bog, covering as much as 2,500 hectares, is unique in nature: it is an open raised bog of the delta type, fed with water not only by precipitation but also by floods. This special place is also considered the cradle of the world science of mire research. The Aukštumala nature trail, winding along a corduroy causeway, was laid as early as the 18th century and connected several bog villages that no longer exist. Today the trail entices travellers with the emerald eyes of bog pools, soft strings of reddening cranberries, crooked dwarf pines and the mysterious songs of birds. Sadly, only a third of the bog – its western part – has kept its natural features to the present day, and in 1995 it was declared a telmological reserve. In 1993 the Aukštumala bog was included in the list of wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, and since 2004 the surviving part of the bog has been part of the European ecological network Natura 2000. The nature trail, more than a kilometre long, reveals all the secrets of the raised bog's beauty and the history of its formation, and helps open the treasure chest of the bog's nature: to get to know the habitats, plants and animals found only here, to understand the value of this mysterious ecosystem, how easily it can be damaged and how hard it is to heal the wounds inflicted. Information boards also tell of the bog villages that once existed but have not survived to our day, of the first scientific studies of the Aukštumala bog, of the features of raised-bog relief and of the historical record hidden in the chronicles of the peat layers. At the end of the trail, by a bog pool, there is a 3-metre-high observation platform that offers a mystical panorama of the bog of exceptional beauty. The Aukštumala nature trail is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful in Šilutė district. There is no other trail like it that leads visitors into the mysterious heart of a bog, to the open expanse of a raised bog with its glistening pools.