Il tuo carrello è vuoto
The first time I went in the oldest and largest National Park in Croatia, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was in summer 1983. I was immediately struck by the beauty and peculiarities of this treasure of Nature. Over the years I have returned three more times: two during autumn and one during winter. I have always been amazed by its changing beauty that follows the course of the seasons.
The park is located between the Mala Kapela mountain ranges to the west and the Licka Pljesivica range to the south, about a three-hour drive from Trieste.
Due to its peculiar characteristics, It was proclaimed the first national park in Croatia in 1949; Its extension, today, reaches 300 square kilometers but the part that attracts almost all tourists is about 1% of the total. It is a park with a prevalence of forest vegetation with a part occupied by a lake area formed by an infinity of water collections and 16 lakes of various sizes, which are arranged one above the other and the water pours into them through beautiful waterfalls.
This particular system of waterfalls is due to the process of sedimentation of the limestone that has formed tuffaceous barriers giving rise to the overlapping of the lakes; all this happens because it is a karst area with the presence in the subsoil of caves and pits and, on the surface, of fields and sinkholes; the water that flows underground when it encounters vertical layers of impermeable rock is forced to emerge to the surface thus forming the streams that feed the lakes. The water from the lakes then flows into the Korana River that runs through the valley.
In this wonder of nature live 157 species of birds, 50 of mammals, including the brown bear (which is the symbol of the park), the wolf, the lynx, the roe deer and 321 species of butterflies. Among the plants stands out the presence of the Scarpetta di Venere (Cypripedium calceolus), a spontaneous orchid among the most beautiful in Europe and some carnivorous plants such as Drosera rotundifolia and Utricolaria minor which is a very rare specie.
The care and tourist receptivity of this park are perfect and very wide and for this reason thousands of tourists visit it every year. Inside a vast system of paths, wooden walkways and even small ferries allow the visitor to appreciate all the beauties of nature that surrounds them. In summer there is a lot of confusion due to the presence of day visitors, from all over the world, who arrive through buses and due to that, sometimes you have queue at the ticket office. According to my experience, the seasons that give greater photographic satisfaction are autumn and then winter.
In autumn the foliage makes the beauty of the lakes and waterfalls unforgettable: the reds, the yellows and all their chromatic variations, combined with the blue-green of the water and the white of the waterfalls leave an indelible mark in the mind and heart of those who observe it. The lakes have transparent waters populated by trout, rudder and chubs and a rich population of waterfowl; among these is the dipper, which stands out while fishing insects by diving into the fast streams. In this period the photographic opportunities are endless, especially if you manage to be there in the period in which the colors of the foliage are at their maximum, usually during the month of October. For this reason, in recent years, there has been a continuous flourishing of photographic workshops organized by many well-known European photographers.
A very special time to visit is in the middle of winter, especially in the coldest weeks when temperature goes below zero making the waterfalls freeze and giving the landscape a suspended, silent and muffled appearance. In this period you have to be very careful because the icy bottom is very dangerous and makes it difficult to visit and also cross the walkways on the water; to me it was very useful to have brought ice crampons. For these reasons, the direction of the park greatly reduces usability by closing many paths, even in the area of the lakes, but nonetheless, the visit is incredibly charming.
