We explored two beautiful, popular outdoor destinations just outside of Zadar: Telascica Nature Park on Dugi Otok island and Paklanica National Park, 40 kilometers from the city.

Telascica Nature Park – We spent the night on Dugi Otok island and then went walking and hiking the next day at the nature park on the southeast part of the island. We took a short break at the very clear Telascica Bay, which hosted a few boats.

• 

• 

• 

Then on to the cliff trail with several viewpoints of the rock face, which reaches heights up to 160 meters.

• 

• 

• 

• 

We passed through a bit of the pine and oak forest when hiking from the cliff trail down to the trail circling lake Mir. The 10-meter-deep, brackish lake is supplied by the nearby sea as water seeps through underground cracks. The lake water is both saltier and warmer than the Adriatic waters. Reportedly, the mud in the lake bottom has healing qualities, but we did not experience that for ourselves since we stayed on the land.

• 

• 

• 

Paklenica National Park – Two days later we trekked 18 kilometers(!) on mostly rocky trails in one of the narrow, limestone gorges of Paklenica National Park. The 95 square kilometers of park covers just a small portion of Velebit Range, the largest mountain range in Croatia. Rock climbers comprise about 1/3 of all park visitors and we watched a few of them at the start of our hike. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•