Sea level must have been 120 metres (390 ft) lower than today, and the Velebit Channel was a wide valley with a river flowing through it.

When sea level began to rise in the late ice age, people moved to higher, hilly areas.

The earliest records of humans in Velebit – Mesolithic flint tools found in Vaganačka Cave under Veliko Rujno – date back to this era.

Approximately eight thousand years ago, the first cattle breeders and farmers arrived in the area, bringing wheat, domestic goats and sheep, as well as the knowledge of their breeding.

Plenty of material evidence, such as bones of domestic animals, tools and equipment used by prehistoric shepherds and decorated clay tableware, was found in the caves that served as shelter for people and cattle.

During the last two thousand years BC, during the Bronze Age, the first fortifications and stone buildings were erected by Liburian peoples.

They could serve as shelter to the population from the surrounding villages in case of danger, and some of them may have been permanent settlements where the local rulers had their seats.

In addition, they oversaw important cattle and trade routes leading to Velebit and further to Lika via Paklenica or Rujan.

Plenty of archaeological findings were collected from approximately 400 explored graves – jewelry, glassware and metalware, weapons and tools.

In an attempt to bring the Adriatic coast back into the Empire, East Roman Emperor Justinian built a system of fortifications to secure navigation and protect the local population.

The ruins of forts and towers above Modrič and near Sveta Trojica in Tribanj are parts of this defensive system that briefly postponed the final decline of the ancient world in the Adriatic.

Near the entrance to the Velika Paklenica is an artificial tunnel complex built for Josip Broz Tito during the tension between Yugoslavia and the USSR in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Vertical cliffs rise above both sides of the canyon up to a height of over 700 m. The most attractive part is the area around the steep drop of the stream downstream from Anića luka, where steep cliffs rise directly above the stream, forming the narrowest part of the canyon between Anića luka and the parking lot.

The great diversity, the presence of relict, endemic, rare, statutorily protected species make the Park a very valuable floristic area, not just in Croatia, but in Europe and the world as well.

In the caves there is a host of interesting underground animals such as crabs, mites, Nematodes, aquatic worms, spiders, pseudoscorpion, beetles and bats.

Today, there are over 360 equipped and improved routes of various difficulty levels and lengths within Paklenica's climbing sites, so each climber can find to their liking.