A Look at Zvarte Rock

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Zvarte Rock
Last summer on our discovery tour of Guaja National Park, we stopped to investigate this unique rock in a part of the park. Zvarte Rock is 650 feet wide, including the surrounding sandstone rock area, and 145 feet high. 


The Amata River wound around the rock until the 1930s when the riverbed was straightened to prevent the erosion of this amazing rock by the river currents. 


Walk to the top
According to legend, witches used to gather near this rock to tune into it's powers. Today it's a very popular tourist area in Latvia.


The climb to the top consisted of several steep staircases. I can attest that the rock was sincerely 145 feet high. 

View from top


I'm glad that my husband urged me to finish the climb because the view was well worth it.


Amata River
The view of the Amata River area was truly amazing. It's the type of place that I'd love to build a house so I could see this scenery every day of my life. 


Beautiful flower

The flowers in the area were very unique, also.  The yellow and purple buds are on the same plant. After some research I found that it's called Melampyrum Nemorosum. It's native to Europe, also found in Sweden and Russia. 



Notice the man in the photo
As we walked away from Zvarte Rock, I had to take one more picture to try to show how large it really is. On this picture, look carefully to see the man in the foreground. That comparison to the rock tells you how impressive it was. 



Latvia certainly has natural marvels for us to remember for a very long time, including one last picture - a stork's nest. We saw these multiple times during our four day trip. 

Stork nest on top of poles



 

 Information taken from Latvia Travel Guide.







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