The Seven lakes National Park (Bolu)
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A well-known author described the Seven Lakes National Park as "an emerald in the forested area of the western Black Sea" and the lakes lie north east of the province of Bolu. While the area can be reached by a 40 km stabilized road turning out of Bolu, the better way is talking the Mengen-Devrek-Zonguldak road between Gerede and Yenicaga, from there to Mengen-Kaynarcahan-Dirgine the former being reached at 152. nd km along the Ankara-Istanbul highway.
 The Seven Lakes area is particularly famous in the autumn and one should especially visit it during autumn and spring. The autumn colours of yellow brown and red in various tones endow it with unparalleled beauty.
In 1965 the Ministry of Forest turned the Seven Lakes into a National Park. in1969 a trout production station was set up with a capacity of 1 million fertilized trout eggs annually. There is also a project to increase the stag population.
The seven lakes are the result of landslide which blocked the small valleys. To prevent the land from sliding further a simple expedient of placing wooden props made of oak logs over the running stream water in step form was utilized.of the lakes four were permanently and three were sometimes dried up in the summer months. The waters of the Seven Lakes came from the Kara stream. Behind the obstruction brought about by the landslide losing the valley the lake formed and the stream waters after the resulting depressions had been filled flowed away over them.
The big lake is on the bottom level which is 780 metres high, the depth ca.15 metres. Towards the end of of summer together with the deep lake is a small dried up lake at the bottom step. The Nazli lake, Sazli lake and two other small frequently dried up lakes can be found 100 m higher up at 880 m elevation. Most of the seven lakes resulting from the landslide are small and the largest is the Buyuk lake which occupies an area of 22.5 hectares followed by the Nazli lake which covers an area of 16.5 hectares.
While like other national parks the Seven Lakes are still not endowed with full touristic facilities, it is nevertheless a very attractive recreation area. It is mostly visited by people traveling between Istanbul and Ankara, or when a daily tour is organized from the Bolu hotels and motels or the Abant hotels. Some Istanbul travel agencies organize daily tours from Istanbul to visit the lakes.
Subject to certain restrictions (min. 23 cm small and max. number fished 3), amateur trout fishing is permitted. To allow amateur fishermen to enjoy this sport at the National Park. trout is artificially produced in the lakes. However during the breeding season between November and May fishing is strictly prohibited. |
