Bijela River
Location: KarinLength: 1,86 kmElevation gain: 140 mDifficulty: EasyDifficulty rating: K1, T1, VR1
Near Karin there is a canyon. Through it flows a river that is white. If you happened to wake up in it, you would probably think you were dreaming that you were in the Grand Canyon. Karin?
The canyon of the Bijela is one of the most impressive places we have ever been to.
This impressive canyon was not carved out by the wild Colorado, but by a small little river – the Bijela (“White”). The Bijela is a seasonal river a little over 3 km long. When you spot it from a distance, it is clear to you why they call it that. Along its entire short course it is full of rapids and waterfalls that merge into one unbroken, winding white line. This place is incredible and unique. It is one of the most attractive we have ever been to, and we found out about it completely by chance!
If you are coming from the direction of Karin, at the sign for Novo Naselje Karin Slana, you should continue straight on onto the old narrow road. The navigation got a little lost here. After some 300 m, before a small bridge, you should turn left and park on the meadow. From there begins a trail that is easy and relatively short, yet offers so much variety and excitement that you could easily spend a whole day here without even being aware of it.
For a good part of the way, the trail leads through a grassy area that brings you right up beneath the cliffs of the canyon. The cliffs are of incredible colour and shape. The impression they leave on the visitor is impossible to forget! They abound in a great number of climbing routes and, as far as I know, are a favourite destination for climbers even from beyond our country’s borders.
The trail then continues along the cliff to the right, where after a while it approaches the lower edge of the canyon. That part of the way is practically cut into the rock, since on one side there is the cliff and on the other a chasm with the river at the bottom. The scenery is exceptionally attractive, vistas onto the waterfalls open up, and the trail gently descends until it reaches the level of the river itself.
The depth of the canyon in some places reaches as much as 300 m, which is hard to capture with a lens.
At the upper point, the trail leads through the river itself, which can be crossed over the stones sticking out of the water. There the trail turns to the right, and after some 100 m you reach a cave in which there is a spring.
No one to whom we mentioned the Bijela had ever heard of it. If we did not have the photographs, we would think we had only dreamt it all.
Special
Although our focus is on Croatia, due to great interest in reviewing some international locations from our travels, we decided to launch the Special section. In it, we will not cover locations in the same detailed way we do with Croatian ones, but will instead provide a brief overview of multiple locations grouped into meaningful categories. The only criterion we still strictly follow is that they must be natural attractions.
