Plitvice Lakes

Plitvice Lakes national park is on every must see list in Croatia. It is in the middle of the country, pretty out of the way of other places tourists usually visit, and takes a concerted effort to visit. And we made the effort! We rented a car in Pula and drove through the Croatian countryside to a little upstairs apartment we rented near the park for a night. The man who rented it was exceptionally nice and it was really great to have a trampoline and yard and teeter-totter for the kids to play on.

The next morning we headed out for our day in the park, which is a series of terraced lakes and waterfalls. They were very pretty! They also reminded us very much of Hanging Lake, a popular hike close to our home in Colorado.

It was a cloudy day which kept it from being too hot; it was actually a bit chilly!

There was a little cave to explore as well.

It was a very beautiful place! It was also really, really crowded, especially with Asian tourists which we found to be quite aggressive when jostling for photo ops. (I found this a bit comforting as it takes some of the pressure off American tourists being the only unpleasant group. It's no longer lonely at the top, folks!) We were forced to shuffle along boardwalks with the crowds, and there was no real way to get off the beaten path. In the popular US national parks, if you just start hiking up a mountain or down into a canyon, the crowds usually fall away pretty quickly. But there were understandably no options like that here, because the whole area is pretty fragile. It was a nice day, but it wasn't a communing with nature sort of experience.

Should you see it if you're visiting Croatia? Yes, but keep your expectations in check. And if you missed it, I don't think it would be the worst thing ever.