Waterfalls and Aquamarine Lakes

We left Zagreb under mostly cloudy skies with the threat of rain as we drove to Plitvice National Park. A UNESCO World Natural Heritage site, Croatia’s most popular park lived up to its reputation as a beautiful and heavily visited park. Often referred to as one of Europe’s most beautiful parks, the park’s colorful waters - blue, green, aquamarine, turquoise - and the many waterfalls are what bring most visitors to the park. The waters’ changing colors is attributed to the concentration of dissolved organic matter, the concentration of various organisms in water, lake depth, the environment of the lake, weather conditions, the play of light and shadows and the surface water movement. We were pleased that the rain held off until the very tail end of our hike. Adding to our experience were two new birds to me - a Great Tit, which we got a very good look at a couple of them eating some sort of chokecherry- looking fruit (the more colorful bird in the photos), and I heard, but did not see, a Eurasian blackcap. Both photos are from eBird. Tonight we are in Zadar, a city on the Adriatic coast. Tomorrow, we explore Zadar. But first, we sleep.Read more