The village and the Turracher Lake at the pass, which both share the same name, are separated by the border of the two federal states of Styria and Carinthia.

Efforts are being made to maintain the diversity of flora and fauna of the Turracherhöhe by means of landscape conservation areas and careful and nature-oriented extension of the tourist facilities.

The Turracher Höhe, as a "classic" pass summit, is also part of a drainage divide between the Mura valley and the Upper Gurk River, whose source is beneath the Lattersteighöhe at approx.

Snowfall normally starts in October at the latest, and a dense blanket of snow quickly forms, which remains until April or sometimes even until May.

The name Turrach is derived from the old term, "Durrach", which was used for a forest, where there are a lot of fallen, dried up ("dürr") trees lying around.

During the Middle Ages and early modern times, connections over the Katschberg in the west and over the Flattnitz in the east were the main traffic routes in the north-south direction, while routes over Turrach had only local importance, e.g. for the transport of salt from the Salzkammergut to Reichenau (first documented mention in 1332), where there was a branch of the toll office.

But south of Turracher Höhe, rural colonization around Reichenau, where there was also a regional court in 1520, provided more compact settlements and single farms.

In the Steinbachgraben, huge amounts of limonite (a type of iron ore) were found, whereupon the count asked Emperor Leopold I for a license for mining and smelting, which was issued on January 31, 1660.

Already in the same year, Johann Adolf ordered the building of a bloomery for smelting iron in Turrach, and in 1662, the first tapping was performed.

The general economic crisis resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and their consequences also reached Turrach's mining in the first two decades of the 19th century.

Thus, it is known that at the provably oldest inn still existing today on the Turracher Höhe, the "Seewirt", there was already an Alpine public house in operation in 1830.

Already at the end of the 19th century, the first tourists came for hiking on the Turrach and shortly before the First World War, the first skiers came for extended ski trips.

As of the 1970s, the crowd of winter athletes on the Turracher Höhe increased and as a result, the gradient of the federal road was evened out little by little by adjustments of the route.

After mining was stopped in the 20th century, the timber industry and forestry are the only "traditional" branch of business still existing on the Turracher Höhe, aside from a few small agricultural operations.

There are still large expanses of woodlands in the Mura valley and in the region between Predlitz and the Turracher Höhe even today in family ownership, which come from the lands acquired by the House of Schwarzenberg in 1623.

The trees felled by the forest administration of Turrach amount to around 24,000 solid cubic metres (or stères) per year, of which 79% is from clearcutting and 21% is from selection cutting.

From Predlitz, where the "Predlitz Turracher Höhe" train station of the Murtalbahn is located, a bus line of the Verkehrsverbund Steiermark (Styrian Transport Association) runs to the pass summit a few times a day, and the same for a bus connection of the ÖBB (Österreichischen Bundesbahnen, Austrian Federal Railways) to Reichenau and further to Klagenfurt.

That is why the offerings for summer tourism, which has only about half as many visitors as during the winter months, is essentially limited to the numerous hiking paths around the lakes and in the surrounding mountainous country.

Five hiking trails are marked as so-called "Geopfade" (Geo-paths), with display boards describing places worth noticing ("Geopunkte", Geo-points) along the way.

About one kilometre before the Reichenau plain, the Nockalmstraße, a toll road, branches off to the national park from the Turracher Straße.

Additional articles from the mining and smelting operations can be viewed in the "Eisensaal" (Iron Hall) of Castle Murau.

The geological construction of the Turracher Höhe is characterised by various kinds of rock, as well as the effects of the tectonic movements, which became visible here and finally led to the formation of the Alps in the late Mesozoic era about 100 million years ago.

In the Würm glaciation, there were partial currents of the Mura glacier, which flowed out of the feeding area of the Niederen Tauern to the south.

The two smaller lakes, left to nature, are less well known, since they are in a protected landscape area and no building is allowed on their shores, and because they can only be reached by footpaths.

Aside from the lakes, marshes and bogs were also formed from the glaciers of the ice age because of the high level of the ground water.

The subalpine forests are often thinned out like a park, with an undergrowth including the ubiquitous rusty-leaved alpenrose (Rhododendron ferrugineum), as well as the alpine juniper (Juniperus communis subsp.

In the green alder (Alnus viridis) bushes at the avalanche slope southeast of the Rinsennock, there are many herbaceous tall forbs, such as monkshood (Aconitum napellus subsp.

On the pass summit, there is a transitional mire: in the mud sedge bog (Caricetum limosae plant community) grow, in addition to the mud sedge (Carex limosa, endangered) which gives the name of the plant community, also the lesser twayblade (Neottia cordata) and the dwarf birch (Betula nana).

In the region of the Turracher Höhe, the entire spectrum of the Alpine animal world is found, with the exception of the ibex, which was never indigenous here.

Scientifically recorded for the first time in 1835 by Ami Boué, there are 72 species of coal forest plants from the Stangalpe known today, among which are the giant horsetails (Calamites), Sigillaria, ferns (Pecopteris), Cordaites and conifers (Dicranophyllum).