5 incredible waterfalls you can visit virtually
Everyone loves waterfalls — the power, the spectacle, the glorious splashiness of it all. But Johnny and Julie Cheng are mega fans. The Los Angeles couple’s World of Waterfalls blog offers up glimpses of some of the planet’s most incredible waterfalls, including their top 10, from Brazil’s Iguazu (No. 1) to New Zealand’s Sutherland Falls (No. 10).
We can’t visit those cataracts in person right now, but we can enjoy some of those spectacles virtually. Here are five you can check out from home.
1 IGUAZU FALLS These spectacular falls, which straddle the border between Argentina and Brazil, are an astonishing 1.5miles across, with 275 separate cataracts coming together to form this stunning sight. BBC Nature’s “This Is Planet Earth” captured the sight in 2013’s pre-drone days using a heligimbal camera to fly the viewer over the falls and into the spray. Find it at bayareane.ws/ Iguazu.
2 ANGEL FALLS, VENEZUELA The world’s tallest waterfall falls an astonishing 3,212 feet, dropping from the top of the Auyán-tepui mountain in Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. You can see it at bayareane.ws/ Angelfalls. (Note: The National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration points out that the ocean holds immense cataracts, but we’re sticking to above-ground waterfalls here.)
3 GULLFOSS, ICELAND This dramatic waterfall is actually two dramatic cataracts, fed by the glacier Langjökull. The first drops 36 feet and the second 69 feet, which may not sound like much but it’s doing it into the great Gullfossgjúfur canyon. Gullfoss is one of the top tourist destinations on Iceland’s Golden Circle. Take a look at bayareane.ws/ Gullfoss.
4 DETTIFOSS, ICELAND Europe’s most powerful waterfall lies in northern Iceland in Vatnajökull National Park, sending 193 cubic meters of water cascading down per second — or 3 million gallons per minute. See the spectacle at bayareane.ws/dettifoss.
5 PLITVICE WATERFALLS, CROATIA The showpiece of Central Croatia’s Plitviče Lakes National Park is a series of 16 terraced lakes, connected by waterfalls and circled by boardwalks so visitors can get an up-close look. But you can get a bird’seye view of these stunning falls via drone footage at bayareane. ws/plitvice.