Croatia’s Plitvice Lakes National Park

This national park may be the most beautiful place on earth. Not too far from the Croatian capital of Zagreb, the sixteen lakes making up the park became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979. We had seen a few pictures of it, but still were not prepared for its beauty. Arriving in time to enter the park at four in the afternoon, Tom, Kathryn, and I set out to explore the Upper Lakes before the park closed at eight pm. We took a short boat ride across one beautiful turquoise lake to begin our walk. Wooden footbridges follow the lakes and the cascading streams.

Beech forests surround the lakes and provide some shade from the brilliant sun that is responsible for so much of the water’s colors. I have never seen such blues and green, all alluring and all defying the camera lens.

A series of waterfalls link the lakes and rushing streams. Coming across 3, 4, or 5 waterfalls together on one side of a lake startles the viewer until the onlooker rounds a bend to discover yet another series of cascading water. The sheer number of waterfalls impacts and causes one to walk around the paths in disbelief.

Another contributing factor to the lakes’ extraordinary natural beauty is the green moss and plants growing on top of each other. According to what you read, these encrusted plants form travertine barriers, thus creating the waterfalls. Because the travertine barriers continually form and reform, their new combinations cause the water’s path to organically evolve into new patterns and waterfalls.

The next morning we went to the Lower Lakes, formed by the Upper Lakes creating cavities for the water to fill. We took the boat across the biggest lake to get to a new park entrance and a hike up the surrounding small mountain to look down on the water vistas. The overlooks stunned us. We lingered over one point in particular and when we left, a lone man entered the path and got his first look. “Wow!” he said. We hiked another few feet out of sight only to hear him go “WOW!” when he got to the overlook. The extraordinary beauty prompts such exclamations.

Underground springs feed the Lower Lakes. A unique combination of water, rock, and plant life causes a natural process that I don’t quite understand. The effect is that water disappears into the porous limestone and reappears in other places. The result is spectacular.