Yedigöller Milli Parkı

Over Halloween weekend, we went out of town for a few days. We visited Yedigoller National Park, and Zonguldak and Karabuk provinces to explore the mountains and Black Sea coast. This first post is about our visit to Yedigoller National Park. We stayed in a cabin about 40 km away from the park, in a town called Mengen. The town is surrounded  by mountains and was just beautiful this time of year, with all the trees and leaves changing color. This was our cabin and view.

And lots of space for the kids to play and run free.

We arrived mid-afternoon and while Eliza and I got unpacked, Nathan took the boys on an ATV ride through the forest.

Afterwards, we went to town for dinner. Meat sandwiches are very popular here, and that is all this restaurant sold. It was good!

The next morning we ate breakfast in the cabin and then left for the park. The mornings were foggy, but turned nice most days. It was supposed to rain each day, but we got lucky and aside from one night in the cabin, we saw no rain! Did I mention all the dogs and puppies on the property? It was heaven for the kids to have dogs and puppies ready to play as soon as they left the cabin each day. By the end of the trip, they had names for every one of them.

Such beautiful scenery and wide open roads!

Yedigoller means seven lakes in Turkish and that is what the park is famous for, it’s seven lakes . 

The northern end of the park was cobblestone and windy roads. We passed very few cars and felt like we had the park to ourselves.

We hiked around several of the lakes admiring the beauty. The colors and nature were stunning.

We stopped at a büfe, which is the Turkish word for snack bar, and ate....meat sandwisches for lunch! The park was packed inside with tents everywhere. However, despite the large crowds, everyone was respectful of eachother’s spaces.

Popcorn and soda for dessert for the win.

We drove through the park and left at the southern (and more popular) entrance, and we were shocked at the long line of cars waiting to get inside. 

What a treat to be here in the fall time.

We stopped at a meat house for dinner. Meat is a staple in Turkey, and we have eaten more red meat in the past few months than I think we did in our entire 5 years in Jordan! They didn’t even have chicken as an option. We got beef and lamb and it was delicious.

Home sweet home for the evening.

It was an incredible day and we loved driving through the park and mountains. God’s creation is all around us and is truly amazing!