Landscapes
East shore of the Müritz
The eastern shore of the Müritz is an extremely shallow outflowing outwash plain of the last great glaciation. The lakes embedded in it are traces of old watercourses or originate from flooded ice remains (dead ice). Today, the eastern shore of the Müritz is characterized by wide reed beds, bogs and swamp forests with seasonally strongly fluctuating water levels.
Tip:
The best way to experience this landscape is by bicycle on the circular route Blue cyclist between Boek and Schwarzenhof. On the way is the Käflingsberg tower, from which the view over the entire Müritz part of the National Park is possible.
The Havel spring area
The terminal moraine, which forms a ridge on the northern edge of the national park, is the watershed between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Here begins the course of rivers and streams. Sources in the Müritz National Park are often entire lakes or swampy places where groundwater comes to the surface. The Havel rises from a spring bog near Ankershagen and then flows through many lakes and bogs, which provide it with water. It flows into the Elbe at Havelberg.
Tip:
This very varied landscape can be experienced on hikes between Ankershagen and Kratzeburg or by canoe from the Käbelick lake downstream.
The UNESCO World Heritage around Serrahn
This is what the primeval forests of this area may have looked like, and this is probably what the forests of the Müritz National Park will look like in a few hundred years. The hunting passion of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz grand dukes left the forests around Serrahn almost untouched for a long time. The valuable old forests later became a nature reserve and, from 1990, a national park. Today, old and original beech forests have become so rare in Europe that they were designated a UNESCO World Heriztage Site in 2011.
Tip:
This forest landscape can be experienced on a hike from Zinow to Dianenhof on the Forest Discovery Trail. In Serrahn, an exhibition tells about the history of the landscape and the value of the old beech forests.
