Description

Bałtów

We can reach this location by going north-west from Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, taking the road to Solec nad Wisłą. Bałtów will greet us with its picturesque location in the gorge of the Kamienna river, between the calm, winding river and the lofty white calcareous rocks from the late Jurassic period. Their resemblance of the rocks found in the small valleys near Cracow is not coincidental; they are the sediment of the same sea, they represent the same age (ca. 160 million years) and a very similar type of sediment. The calcareous rock walls on the banks of the Kamienna river valley are intertwined with small valleys, which in their higher parts cross over to picturesque, dark gorges and ravines that are often cut out in Pleistocenic loess that was formed in the last tens of thousands of years. The idea of creating the Jurassic park at this location stemmed from the karst structures found here which resemble the footprints of dinosaurs. Even though research indicates that, due to the depth of the Jurassic sea located here at the time, dinosaurs could not have made any footprints, they surely visited this place after the sea had withdrawn, only several million years later.

The Jurassic Park located in the Kamienna river valley has a collection of models of organisms that inhabited the earth throughout its history. The most impressive of these is a group of dinosaurs. The replicas were made with great accuracy and attention to detail and illustrate the high variety and gradual development of this animal group in the different geological periods. In the Jurassic Park we can also see a unique collection of minerals and fossils as well as a collection of rock chunks with authentic early-Jurassic dinosaur footprints that were found near the town of Szydłowiec. The Bałtów park is a place of high educational value that captures the imagination not only of the younger visitors. In addition to learning about the world of the dinosaurs one can also visit the zoological garden which is located in very interesting terrain and offers professional guided tours, take a raft or a canoe down the Kamienna river, ride horses or ski. The Bałtów Jurassic Park operates under the patronage of the Polish Geological Institute.