The Ūla is often called the most distinctive river in Lithuania — geographer Alfonsas Basalykas famously described it as the only river in the country without an equal, thanks to its capricious channel and a valley landscape almost untouched by human hands. A tributary of the Merkys, the Ūla winds for about 25 km through Dzūkija National Park, Lithuania's largest protected area, cutting through pine forests and sandy bluffs that rise steeply above the water — most dramatically at the Mančiagirė escarpments.

Fed by countless springs seeping from the porous sands of the Dainava forest — including the famous "Ūla's Eye," a bubbling spring vent near the river — the water stays cold, clear and fast-flowing all year round. The stretch below Rudnia is protected as a Natura 2000 site, and paddling the river requires a national park permit.

Simple wooden footbridges like this one are a signature of the Ūla valley — five of them cross the river along the walking route between Zervynos and Mančiagirė alone, linking old ethnographic Dzūkian villages whose timber homesteads have stood by these banks for centuries. Zervynos itself, a protected heritage village on the river, is one of the best-preserved examples of traditional woodland-Dzūkija architecture.