This is the one scene that I was most looking forward to taking a closer look at after returning from Ecuador. With a total drop of 430 feet (310 feet on the second drop alone!), this is the tallest waterfall in Ecuador. We were spending most of our time in mainland Ecuador along the spine of the Andes Mountains and this waterfall is a long, long way from there. I thought we would never arrive, especially when it was so difficult to locate correctly on the maps that we were using (at least four). Ramona and I first hiked to this cliffside viewpoint in the middle of a sunny day and I could see that the weather was developing for a possible dramatic sunset. To get this shot I decided to return to the trail head at 4 o'clock, one hour before it closed. I wanted to be gone and forgotten about well before the area closed because the sun was to set at around 5:45pm and I definitely wanted the shot that I was hoping for. I arrived at the same cliffside overlook and waited with the mosquitoes and hummingbirds and enjoyed the view along with the tremendous roar of this incredible waterfall. I was very worried that the park officials would come looking for me and escort me out of the area and send me on my way, or worse, arrest me. That didn't happen and when the sun was setting everything started changing rapidly, from the clouds in the sky to the clouds in the valley that moved across the scene from left to right. At one point I could hardly see the waterfall for the clouds between it and me. Eventually, everything fell into a nice balance and I captured the shot that you see here.
Statistics
Place: 26 out of 237 Avg (all users): 6.5484 Avg (commenters): 8.1429 Avg (participants): 6.5347 Avg (non-participants): 6.6087 Views since voting: 1052 Views during voting: 226 Votes: 124 Comments: 10 Favorites: 5 (view)
I'm from Ecuador, lived there 11 years, and visit every couple of years, but I've never visited the San Rafael waterfall! Really on my to see list now, great photo ;)
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
