Varnikai Nature Trail

A boardwalk covering most of the trail leads walkers through bogs, a meadow with small lakelets and a naturally formed mixed forest. The trail is quick and easy to reach and relatively short. At the start of the trail there is a chain of hills formed during the last Ice Age. At the first stop you'll find a 15-metre-deep hollow carved out by the glacier. A little further on you'll come to a footbridge, and beyond it a boardwalk across the bog. About half of the Varnikai trail crosses the Ilgelis bog, which covers a full 207 hectares. It's truly charming and lovely to look at. On the roughly 1.3 km boardwalk across the bog it's dry, comfortable and safe to walk. Slender birches rustle all around, and depending on the season, bilberries turn blue, ripening lingonberries show their barely blushing cheeks, and the soft carpet of moss and other bog plants catches the eye with its green. The boardwalk across the bog leads to a wide, waterlogged meadow with several small lakelets. It turns out there are four of them in the Ilgelis bog: Baluošas, Piliškiai, Bevardis and Ilgelis. Once the bog and the boardwalk end, the route continues through mixed forest. Some 450 hectares of it is naturally formed mixed forest 100–130 years old, with oaks of 130–150 years. That's why you'll notice many old, impressively moss-covered trees along the way.