Guide
Kızıldağ National Park covers 80,200 hectares around Şarkikaraağaç in Isparta province, on the hills above Lake Beyşehir, and it was declared on 9 May 1969. What distinguishes it is its cedar forest: the Directorate General of Nature Conservation and National Parks describes the blue cedars here, whose needles carry a blue cast, as rare in the world, and it is their resin that gives the air in the forest its weight and smell.
The walking route the directorate points visitors to is the marked YY-2, the Kızıldağ Cedar Forest to Lake Beyşehir path. It ends at one of the viewpoints over Beyşehir, which is large enough to read as an inland sea and turns red in the last light. Birdwatching among the endemic flora is the other activity named.
The park takes overnight visitors as well as day ones: there is tent camping, with a stated capacity of 75 tents, and duplex bungalows with fireplaces. Visitor capacity is 1,100 and vehicle capacity 250, and the gates are open from 08:30 to 22:00. The directorate publishes a tariff that charges separately for arriving on foot or by bicycle, by motorcycle or ATV, by car, minibus, midibus or coach, for a tent pitch, for bungalow stays at weekday and weekend rates in fixed and flexible forms, and for firewood; because the page carries no date showing when those rates were set, the amounts are not repeated here and should be checked with the operator. The lease is held by the Şarkikaraağaç District Governorate's Union for Services to Villages.
Getting there without a car takes planning. A municipal bus runs between Isparta and Şarkikaraağaç once every four hours, and the last three kilometres from Şarkikaraağaç to the park are covered by taxi. The nearest settlement is Beyköy, three kilometres away.
- Designated
- 9.05.1969
