Plungė District Municipality
Žemaitija National Park
forest nature trail in Žemaitija National Park
Plokštinė Forest, Plateliai Eldership, Plungė District (Žemaitija National Park)
56.03000, 21.90550
about 1.5 hours for roughly 3 km
spring to autumn
Plokštinė Trail, Plokštinė Forest Trail
Plokštinė Nature Trail: a forest walk by the former base
Plokštinė Nature Trail is an approximately 3 km forest trail in Žemaitija National Park, east of Lake Plateliai. It winds through the hilly pinewoods of Plokštinė, within the territory of a former Soviet military base, and leads past Pilelis Spring.
It is important to understand what this trail is and is not. This is a free nature walk about forest, animals, and the spring, not a war-history museum. It circles the former missile-base territory, but the base itself and the Cold War Museum are separate, paid sites.
The trail and Pilelis Spring
The roughly 3 km trail consists of about 0.8 km of natural ground and 2.2 km of reinforced surface, and usually takes about 1.5 hours. The route is marked with arrows, an information stand stands near the start, and rest places are arranged along the way.
One highlight is Pilelis Spring, a hydrogeological natural monument that does not dry up during the worst droughts and does not freeze in winter. Its name comes from the surname Pilelis, after a person who lived by the spring. A belief says its water has healing power because it flows east; that is a belief, not a scientific fact.
Plokštinė Forest and relief
The trail passes through spruce, pine, and birch woods inhabited by elk, red deer, wild boar, roe deer, squirrels, and even bats. It is a good place to sense the diversity of Samogitian forest.
The name Plokštinė comes from the Lithuanian word for flat: it is a plateau-like area surrounded by sand hills 25-45 m high and depressions shaped by the Ice Age. The Plokštinė Forest and nearby Plokščiai village took their names from the same landscape.
The trail and the missile base
The route circles the territory where a Soviet missile base operated from 1963 to 1978 with four medium-range ballistic missiles. The base was surrounded by six rings of security fencing, and remains of those barriers can still be seen from the trail.
The base itself is now the Cold War Museum in a former missile silo, a separate paid underground object. The trail is not the same as the museum, and it is also not the same as the Plokštinė Strict Nature Reserve, which cannot be entered without permission from the park directorate.
How to visit
The trail is open, free, and visited year-round; no advance registration is needed. The terrain is hilly, so wear comfortable footwear.
It combines well with the Cold War Museum, Lake Plateliai, Plateliai town, and other Žemaitija National Park trails. It is a good introduction to the natural side of the park's forests.
