PARC NATIONAL DE LLOGARA

This national park (Parku Kombëtar i Llogarasë) extends over 10 km2 around the Llogara Pass. When it was created in 1966, it was designed as a resort with a small complex of restaurants and hotels to accommodate the nomenklatura and the deserving proletariat. These establishments still exist and new ones have even appeared in recent years. Located on the western side of the pass, they allow a pleasant break before the descent to Palasa. But the park can also be worth a stop for one or two nights. It offers a beautiful diversity of landscapes with hiking trails, meadows, vertical cliffs, plunging views of the sea and dense forests composed mainly of Bosnian pine, Bulgarian fir, white fir, ash and scrub oak. Notice how the wind has given strange shapes to some of these trees. One of them, a black pine nicknamed "flag pine" (Pisha Flamur), is famous in the country. Located about 900 m before the pass coming from Dikat, it is about 20 m high, would be more than a century old and its branches seem to draw a flag floating in the wind. The fauna is also very rich. There are a few pairs of griffon vultures and golden eagles, partridges, wild cats, chamois, wolves, foxes, roe deer and fallow deer. Other fallow deer live in semi-liberty in the tourist complex, in the Llogara Tourist Village.