One of the highest dunes in Latvia, located between Bernāti and Jūrmalciems villages. It is 37m high and offers a magnificent view of the sea and natural pine forests. The highest dunes in Latvia stand to the South of Jūrmalciems village: the Pūsēnu hill, the Ķupu hill, the Mietragkalns or Tiesas hill, the Pāļu hill, the Garais hill, the Ātrais hill, the Lāvas hill. The Pūsēnu dune is the highest of these dunes which are all called hills by the local people. The Pūsēnu hill developed between 1785 to 1835 when shifting sand became extremely dangerous. Several homesteads were buried in sand, among them „Pūsēni”, where a forester’s family lived. The family is said to have moved to Bārta. The dune was named after the buried homestead.

Jēkabs Janševskis, a Latvian writer, wrote in his book „Nīca”: “In olden times, large pine trees were growing in the dunes on the coast of Nīca and they stood steady and firm. But i Swedish times (around 1650), the Swedes built a large kiln for charcoal and tar. Pine wood and stumps provided an excellent material for this. Once a big fire rose, and the charcoal kiln burned down as well as the whole pine forest. The remaining stumps and bare trunks in the vast burnout could not hold the storm-driven sand; it flew further and further burying not only the burned-out forest, but also the nearest fields. In wintertime, when the vast, low marshy grasslands were covered with ice, jets of sand drifted further over its surface, and soon most of the grasslands and large meadows turned into sandy heath-land and dunes.”

To reconstruct Liepāja, severely damaged during WWII, a silicate brick factory was built in the town. The main raw material was white sand and it was taken from the Bernātu forest. In the 1960-ies they started to dig off the Green Dune and the White Dune, later also the Pūsēnu hill. The excavators used to work day and night, in three shifts. The work stopped at around 1980, as there was no more sand suitable for production of brick.

A trail is set up to facilitate walking in the Pūsēnu Dune in the Bernātu Nature Park.

he wetland meadows that are around the Pededze River are the site of this 200 ha farm with some 350 red deer, other deer and wild boar. There are towers from which you can watch the graceful animals, and there are ponds for commercial fishing. Please contact the owner well in advance for a tour.

The forest around Kaltene features a natural miracle – the rocks of Kaltene, which are also known as the barrier rocks.  The rocks are 2-3 m from the sea and date back to the Ice Age.  The Devil’s rock is the largest one.  It used to be a beautiful pile of rocks that “stretched to the tops of the trees.”  In older maps it is described as being 20 m high.  It had many natural rocks, including some that were completely round, while others resembled plates.  The rock was almost completely destroyed in the 1960s and 1970s, when it was chopped up to build roads.  A fairly small part of the rock survives today, and it is 300 m long and 2 m high.  Scientists believe that these rocks used to be sacred locations, because there are many legends and stories about them.  There is a forest path with wooden pathways, information stands and a small car park there. (Source: Roja TIC)

The small Andrupene swamp is found to the North of the Andrupene Farm Museum in a deep area between hillocks.  It is a high-type swamp with an open central part, and it is 130 m long and 120 m wide.  There are stands of white alder alongside the swamp.  In 2009, the administrators of the Rāzna National Park restored a wooden educational pathway that had been established originally by the Andrupene Elementary School.  Today there are stairs, a viewing platform, wooden pathways, and information stands.