Nature Park Plitvice Lakes

Nature Park Plitvice Lakes are situated between the mountains of Mala Kapela in the west and in the east amid Pljesivice Dinara massif. The national park consists of 16 lakes, which are stepwise and descend into each other in a series of 5460 m of crow flies.

Plitvice Lakes

The average annual rainfall is 1500 mm and the maximum amount of rain usually falls in the spring and fall. The average annual temperature is 7.9 ° C. The lakes are usually frozen during December and January. The temperature of the sources is usually below 10 ° C, and the average relative humidity is 81.8%.

The lakes are divided into upper and lower lakes. Upper Lakes are: Prošćansko, Ciginovac, Okrugljak, Batinovac, Big Lake, Little Lake, Vir, Galovac, Charm, Gradinsko Lake, Big Burget and Kozjak while the Lower Lakes: Milanovac Gavanovac, Kaluđerovac and Novakovic Brod.

Plitvice Lakes

The lakes are drenching the Black and White rivers with tributaries, as well as Rječica and its tributaries. There are many sources where water flows abundantly. These are typical karst springs formed on faults permeable and impermeable geological formations. The largest lake is Kozjak with 81.5 hectares and is also the deepest with a depth of 47 m Prošćansko is the second largest and extends from south to north with a length of 2.5 km.

Plitvice Lakes

The whole area of the National Park belongs to the karst region of Southeast Europe. A typical feature of the fragile and porous rocks, mainly limestone and dolomite. This configuration is rich in various geomorphological phenomena such as sinkholes, karst valleys, bays, valleys, ridges, etc.

 Not very much is known about it at the moment, but there are a lot of scientific researches going on. Most of the karst natural phenomenon takes place underground, where there is plenty of water in form of  underground rivers. When the water runs into impermeable rock, it comes to the surface.

Plitvice Lakes

Plitvice Lakes in winter

The unique fact of the Lakes is that every lake is connected via another lake. Due to constant changes it can not be individually analyzed.

The forests and the water are linked with eachother, so one can’t survive without the other. Forest reserves, preserves and refines large amounts of water. In the park there is a large area of high quality forests, including rainforests, which are the ultimate habitat for wildlife.

Forest lakes habitat are three large European carnivores: brown bear, wolf and lynx. Many species of woodpeckers and forest owl evidence of the high quality and natural-habitat. The most famous resident of the Plitvice is the brown bear who happens to be a symbol of nature.

The brown bear - symbol of nature