Plitvice Lakes in Croatia is one of the world's most beautiful natural wonders. It was the last top on an 8-day adventure tour that my dad and I were on. The night before coming to the national park, we stayed in the story-book village of Korana which is just down the road from the park.
Like any national park, it's difficult to convey the scope and beauty of the park in photos and words. With huge natural attractions like this, attempts at describing the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings of the place often feel underwhelming and inadequate. I shall make my attempt none the less!
The first thing that hits you over the head like a sack of bricks is the color and clarity of the water in the Plitvice lakes. Emerald keeps coming to mind, but it's not green. The water is a greenish blue that seems to radiate its own light. And the water is so clear that at times it looks as if you're looking through blue-green tinted glass. You can easily see the branches and rocks on the bottom of the lakes.
There were also a LOT of fish. Fishing isn't allowed in the park, but it looked like you could just reach in and fish by hand if you were so inclined. I've never been anywhere that wasn't a fish farm with so many visible fish. Well, actually that's not true. I did scuba dive in Thailand and saw huge schools of fish. So maybe this is the most fresh water fish that I've seen in one place.
The next thing that you can't help but notice at Plitvice Lakes is all of the waterfalls. The whole park is full of them. Later in the post I'll show a sign that displays how the lakes were made, but basically these lakes are a series of natural stone dams that pour into each other, one after another.
Some of the waterfalls are tall, like the one in the photo above. While others are just a few feet high. They are all pretty loud and there is a constant roaring while visiting this national park.
Walking through the park is fantastic. It's filled with miles of little wooden walkways that go around and over this lakes and waterfalls. At times it can be a little frustrating as the paths are narrow and people stop for photos, but generally traffic moves along well and it's not too hard to pass people who are moving slower than you.
I'm a huge fan of these types of wooden walkways. We saw some similar paths in Lake Bled Slovenia and they have an amusement park quality to them that turns the boring task of walking into an adventure.
As you can see in the photo above, there were quite a few people at the park when we visited. It is a very popular tourist destination, but it rarely seemed crowded. The park is so large and spread out, the people don't bunch up too much. There are also multiple routes through the park, so everyone isn't on the same path at the same time. It's usually possible to skip crowded areas.
Most of the lakes are fairly small and you can walk around them. But there are a few large lakes that you can take a boat across.
We brought our lunches and stopped at a log for lunch. I don't remember if we stayed with our group for the whole day or if my dad and I broke off and did our own thing for a time. The rest of the group doesn't show up in any of my photos so I'm thinking we took off and met up with everyone later.
Back on the path, we continued through the park. I think I was driving my dad crazy because I kept stopping for photos every 5 seconds.
One thing that I found fascinating is how the lakes were formed. I know it's not the most exciting topic and no one wants to read about things that they can google for themselves, but I'm going to talk about it anyways.
This is how the lakes and waterfalls were made: The water that flows through the park is super calcified. Before it gets to the park, the water passes underground and dissolves limestone and becomes saturated with chalk.
When the water reaches the earth's surface, anything that is exposed to the water for a while becomes coated with the stone and becomes petrified. Our guide mentioned that they have found petrified cameras in the water that have become encased in stone after only a few years.
Certain plants thrive in this mineral rich water and it grows around the water. The plants become encased in stone and create a natural stone dams. These dams collect water and become lakes. Some of the dams break after the lakes get too big while others continue to grow with more plants growing and becoming stone.
This sign shows how the park looks at the moment, with the solid white parts representing the stone dams made of calcified plants.
Here you can see the plants that grow in the water and become calcified and form a dam. What I don't know is if they find many petrified fish. The dead fish probably decompose too quickly to petrify.
It's a cool process with stunning results! Though I would think that dissolved chalk would make the water... chalky, but the water is super clear.
And that concludes my tour of Plitvice Lakes National Park. Both my dad and I really enjoyed seeing this natural wonder. After our day at the park, our group returned to Korana for one last night with the adventure tour group.
As I've said in previous posts, there are pros and cons with joining a tour group like this. Generally, I prefer the freedom, flexibility, and frugality of traveling on my own. I tend to get squirrely if I'm in a group for too long and don't get time to myself. But I saw so many cool things that I never would have seen on my own. There's a lot of value in having a local guide who can take you to places that aren't on the tourism websites. The guides also know the local business owners and you get treated more like family than like tourists at restaurants and hotels.
I had a great time on our adventure tour with Huck Finn Adventures and definitely recommend them. Our guide was fantastic and our group was nice and small. If you're planning on a trip to Croatia and want something to do while you're there, you really can't go wrong with this group.
Though this was the end of our trip with Huck Finn adventures, it was not the end of the trip by a long shot! We still had a few days to get my dad back to the airport in Budapest. And I had to get to a meeting in Greece with fellow Hiver and brother 