Was it the sheer beauty of the landscape? In any case, those pictures jumping off the pages of the internet became the catalyst for a visit to Croatia.
This became feasible when planning a spring bike and barge tour of the Danube. In spring, the landscape in and around the park is bursting with colour, and the waterfalls and waterways are swollen with water. Temperatures are pleasant for hiking, and there are fewer tourists compared to the months of July and August. The park is considered one of the most beautiful natural phenomena in Europe.
Its lake system is divided into an upper and lower cluster covering a distance of eight kilometres in a north-south direction.
The twelve upper lakes lie in a dolomite valley surrounded by dense forest. To a lesser extent, there are stands of spruce, pine, oak, hornbeam, ironwood, and sycamore. The four lower lakes, smaller and shallower, lie on limestone bedrock. The park is home to lakes, caves, and waterfalls formed by processes typical of karst landscapes.
Over thousands of years, water pouring into Plitvice from the mountains eroded the surrounding limestone and dolomite rocks. Moss and algae acted as catalysts to turn the dissolved rock calcium carbonate into the porous stone known as travertine that was then deposited in the water. Nature is still manufacturing travertine and the dissolve-and-deposit process builds to the point where it creates natural dams between the lakes.
