Soos Nature Reserve
A moonscape in Bohemia: boardwalks lead across a mineral peatland of bubbling mud volcanoes and mofettes — the ground steams, hisses and shimmers with mineral colours.
Photo: Lubor Ferenc · CC BY 4.0At a glance
Drive time
~45 min by car
Distance
~29 km
Time on site
1–2 h
Effort
easy
Good for
About the place
The Soos reserve has protected since 1964 the floor of a dried-up lake in a landscape shaped by Tertiary volcanism: a saline mineral peatland with a diatomite shield unlike anything else in Central Europe. Mofettes — mud volcanoes hissing with carbon dioxide — bubble up from the ground, and the earth is coated with colourful mineral crusts that thrive here like nowhere else.
The boardwalk nature trail runs about 1.2 kilometres and can be managed with a stroller; the site includes a small exhibition on the nature of the Cheb region with models of prehistoric reptiles that children adore. The trip combines beautifully with Františkovy Lázně or Vildštejn Castle in Skalná, a few minutes' drive away.
