Karaekşi Nature Park is a small streamside woodland of 8.5 hectares on the edge of Mut district in Mersin province, and it is reached by private car only. The site was registered as a type B recreation area before a ministerial approval dated 11 July 2011 and numbered 903 declared it a nature park. It once shared its ground with a trout production station; the Directorate General closed that station with its approval of 22 May 2015, and the area was laid out as a nature park instead.
What the directorate values here is the combination of forest, a spring that rises on the site and is good to look at, and the stream bank. Red pine and oriental plane are the main trees, with manna ash, acacia, white willow, aspen, savin and Syrian juniper appearing in places, and oleander and bramble growing as shrubs along the water. The ground flora is rich in herbs as well as woody plants. Squirrel, little owl, jay, collared dove, chukar partridge, fox, martens, hedgehog, sparrow and house mouse are recorded, along with lizards, snakes and frogs.
It is a picnic park, used year-round because it is close to the town. There is an entrance control building, a country restaurant that serves visitors, a kiosk, a prayer room, an administrative building with toilets, and a children's playground; walking is possible on the existing paths. It has capacity for 960 visitors and 120 vehicles.
The park is 7 kilometres from Mut and 177 kilometres from Mersin. The approach is along the Mut-Kozlar plateau road, turning off onto the park road and continuing 1.5 kilometres.
- Designated
- 11.07.2011
Entry fee
- Mediterranean group 2 · category 2 · Per person
- 55 ₺
Visiting hours
- Visiting hours
- 08:00 - 20:00
When to go
- Climate
- Across Mersin as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 10.4 °C in January to 28.5 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in April, May, October and November; rainfall is heaviest in December (137 mm) and lightest in August (7 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
