A little paradise: Plitvice

This one is a special for me.

Waterfalls are probably my favourite nature setting, and probably for that reason, ever since I saw photos of this park, I fell in love with it. It has been YEARS since visiting it has been on my bucket list... and it finally happened!

Plitvice is a national park in Croatia (actually, the first Croatian national park!), and one of the main attractions of the country. And it's so easy to understand why.

The place is magical. Amazing lakes, some with cristal clear waters, others in a emerald colour, surrounded by forests of beech trees.

And of course, waterfalls. Dozens of waterfalls!

Given the geological characteristics and how the lakes were formed, they cascade to other lakes, so you kind of have a "staircase" of lakes. The park's website offers a very good explanation about the lake system, and also about why the landscape evolves this way. I do recommend to pay the website a visit, since it's loaded with a ton of great info! Here, you'll have my little insight on why you must put this one on your list, if you like nature.

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There is more than one entrance to the park, and in this one (and I bet in the others as well) you have very good infographics about the different park trails.

Although the lakes are probably the most visited part of the park, they are just a very tiny part of the overall possible experience.

All the trails are very well indicated, and most of them are pretty wide, so chances of going off trail unintentionally are small; though with so many different trees, little details, I totally can understand the will to stray away from the common paths.

I went with a guide, so I got the advantage of sharing the knowledge about the lake system, and some of the fauna and flora; but you are also free to hike on your own.

As you follow the trails trought the forest, you pass alongside some of the lakes, and you can also see some info on the signs well spreaded throughout the park, such as the lake's name and depht; and it's easy to understand the multi-layered disposition of the lakes by looking at them.

The only hard part... was to stop taking photos!

A good part of the lakes I came across, big and small, looked straight out of a postcard. The settings were unreal, and the cloudy skies only made them even more breathtaking.

To add to the beauty of the lakes, waterfalls were everywhere.

Some of them divided themselves in a multitude of smaller waterfalls, side by side.

The hiking trail I took was in perfect conditions, streaming through all these little wonders; and as you left them behind, you entered the forest again. Most of this trail though, was at waterside.

The thick forest (and the limited time) makes it harder to spot wildlife, especially when you're on the go. I still was able to find a few critters, although I can imagine most of the people wouldn't be that happy to see this first one. Not my preferred animal for sure... but it was beautiful nevertheless; besides, who can blame her for setting a house with this view??

Not that far from miss spider, a big fish was relaxing at the lake margin, only to depart shortly after I pressed the shutter button.

Some of the lakes were pretty shallow, as this one; as you can see, the hiking trail follows the river margin. The forest was left behing, but I would soon enter it again.

This one of probably my favourite one. Can't remember the name at all, but doesn't matter. The colour, the size, the forest at my back and the little waterfall almost made me not to continue the hike and stay there admiring the place.

But no, there were so many more little wonders to see. This trail finished at the biggest waterfall of the park, passing by some more amazing spots to get there.

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Was the big waterfall the crown jewel of the trail? Well, not really, at least for me. Still, definitely worth getting here.

The waterfalls are not that big on this time of the year. And altough it can't be admired on this photo, they are inserted in a beutifull setting with more waterfalls nearby; fortunately, and the trail starts to go up (this one was taken at the waterfall base), we have a few belveders where the overall scenery can be better admired.

How beautiful is this?

Well, as you've probably noticed, I'm a little biased; but this was one natural parks I most enjoyed visiting, and I've been in tons of them. I don't know if it was for amount the years I dreamed of visiting, the waterfalls, but it was definitely a special visit for me. And this was at the end of the Summer, in mid-September; I can only imagine that in early Spring, after the ice melting, that all of these waterfalls are going to be even more astounishing!

I did have some trouble picking the photos for the post, given the insane amount of photos I took... who knows I'll join some more early Spring photos to my collection in a near future?

Another postcard photo to finish the post? Sure! 😉

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