Route F...I'd Rather See the Whole Park: Plitvice Lakes National Park

I debarked from the mini-ferry that transports people across the lake, saw the arrow for Route F and proceeded in the pointed direction. At the next junction however, Route F disappeared. Instead of worrying where my route had gone, I continued on the path that led higher into the trees. (My approach is to always go higher, I do not know why, but if I do not know where to go, I climb.) At the end of the trail, I boarded the mandated bus that brought us back to the starting point on the other side of the lake. During the ride, I felt under-impressed by the National Park. While the forest, streams and rocks were pretty, they were definitely not as amazing as people promised.

The train stopped at the entrance to the park and I still had 1.5 hours before the bus back to Zagreb was set to depart. Still bothered by almost feeling cheated, I walked over to actually study the map. In thirty seconds, I was able to check, recheck and subsequently realize that I had explored the wrong quadrant of the park. I turned to a park employee standing to my right and asked if she could verify my analysis of the map. Sure enough, I was correct and had less than 1.5 hours to finish the published four-hour hike. I ran (literally) to the entrance of the actual Route F (I did not even want to wait for the train) and rushed through the rest of the park.

I was scurrying down the trail, taking three steps for everyone else’s two, when I noticed tourists, armed with their digital SLR cameras, sliding around a split in the trail. A lookout. I slowed down, hooked around the curve and stared into the valley. There it was! The reason people rave about the lakes: the sapphire water that looked far closer to a pool than a lake, the waterfalls, some camouflaged while others very conspicuous, the trees, a fantastic shade of green indicating there has been no shortage of water this year, and all these things engulfed in the sound of water cascading over the rocks. I had to leave the lookout, but I knew where I was heading…down and into the scenery I was admiring from above.

I returned to the bus two minutes before 4:00. Sweaty and with feet that felt like they were stuck in an oven, but extremely glad I did not retire after the 1^st route. Plitvice Lakes are amazing…just be sure you go down the proper route!