When many of my friends heard I was in Croatia, the biggest suggestion I got was “You HAVE to go to Plitvice Lakes National Park!”

According to our Lonely Planet book, this park became an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979 and is a set of lakes that empty into each other through cascading waterfalls.

Also, we found the Earth Trekkers guide to Plitvice Lakes National Park to be super helpful.  They get into lots of detail around the various hiking routes (aka programs) and different ways to explore the park.  Check it out by clicking here.

Driving to the Park

We rented a car in and made the 3 hour drive to the park.  It was a delightful drive with well managed and fast tollways.

The view while driving is pretty impressive too.  Below is a pic of some interesting rock formations we saw while driving:

Our plan for Day 1 was to check out the lower lakes section of the park which included the famous Veliki Slap (aka Large Waterfall) that is about 80m tall.

The weather was pretty nice – probably in the 70’s with some sun but a lot of overcast.

Park Entrance

We came in through Entrance 1 of the park so we would be on the lower lakes side.

Here’s a pic of Bill checking out the park’s hiking map:

Veliki Slap

Once inside the park, you basically walk right onto a big overlook to see Veliki Slap off in the distance.

Here’s a pic from this overlook.  The large waterfall is towards the back a little to the right of center.  The lighting isn’t the best but don’t worry, there will be a better pic of this waterfall once we’ve hiked to the bottom.

After seeing this impressive waterfall from a distance, we started hiking down to see it from the bottom of the canyon.

Hiking Down to Veliki Slap

While walking along the rim to catch the trail down to the bottom, we found these very interesting limestone outcrops.  Bill was in heaven (and yes, that’s his happy face):

Here’s a pic from above that shows one of the beautiful turquoise lakes with the boardwalk we will cross to get to the bottom of Veliki Slap:

Here’s a closer pic of the water once we reached the bottom of the canyon but before we crossed the boardwalk:

Here’s a pic we took when we were halfway across the boardwalk (the lighting doesn’t do the incredible water enough justice):

After we crossed the lake on the boardwalk, we continued along the top of another set of waterfalls which you can see in front of the Veliki Slap in the above pic from the first overlook.

Here’s a pic from above those smaller falls:

We arrived.

Here’s a pic of Veliki Slap from the bottom.

Plitvice Lakes Caves

After seeing the large waterfall from the bottom, we made our way up to look back and see the other side of the canyon.

here’s a pic of some caves (and a boardwalk that takes you across the lake) and we headed there next:

Here’s a pic of examples of all the beautiful tiny waterfalls you see throughout the park:

Here’s a pic from the entrance of the cave looking back at where we came from:

It’s pretty easy to get inside the cave – up and around some steps and walk inside.  They did post some caution signs about entering at your own risk but of course that didn’t deter us.

Here’s a pic of a cave formation I took when inside the cave:

Once we explored the various nooks inside the cave, we followed the spiral steps to the top.

Here’s a pic from the top down to the bottom:

After getting out of the cave, we spent the rest of the day hiking around the park.

We returned the next day to explore the upper lakes area and see how morning light changes things.

I will be sharing our account from Day 2 at Plitvice Lakes National Park shortly so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading!!