Natural waterfalls provide a sense of tranquility and peace, creating a natural wonder and beauty that is often unmatched. The sight of cascading water can be mesmerizing, providing a sublime experience that is unparalleled. The sound of the waterfall, too, is calming in comparison to the hustle and bustle of daily life.
In addition to their beauty, natural waterfalls offer numerous physical and mental health benefits. The presence of running water has a calming, therapeutic effect that can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. The presence of negative ions in the atmosphere caused by the water can also help increase alertness, concentration, and overall well-being.
Lastly, visiting a natural waterfall is a great way to reconnect with nature and to experience something unique. Whether it’s a leisurely stroll, a picnic, or photography, natural waterfalls provide a great opportunity to get away from the stresses of everyday life and to appreciate the beauty of nature.
Grab your favorite coffee or best tea and relax while learning and looking at some of our favorite waterfalls!
1. Skeie Waterfall
Here you can see a wonderful waterfall shooting out of a narrow opening from the woods and exploding into a large, more open, landscape. The picture is vibrant and full of green life. In fact, the main colors of the image are green (in various shades), a shocking white from the waterfall, and just a hint of blue at the top of the picture. The variety in color shades provides a feast for the eyes, and the picture is at once exciting and rejuvenating. There is a sense of mobility and possibility while looking at the photograph.
2. Glencar Waterfall
The waterfall photograph is perfectly serene, and the waterfall itself looks like a gentle shower. It invites you in, and offers a place of rest and relaxation. The area around the waterfall is small, and seems quiet. It is surrounded by trees that increase the closed-in sense of the area, and they seem to provide a blanket of comfort for whoever is viewing the scene. The sky isn’t visible in this picture, the whole world seems to close around this spot, making it the perfect place to really relax and let down one’s guard.
3. Skogafoss waterfalls, Iceland
What a shot! The center background shows a massive, torrential waterfall pouring into a medium-sized body of water. Floating just in front of that incredible waterfall is a shimmering rainbow. It hangs right in the center of the picture, and it stretches from one section of rock bordering the left side of the waterfall straight across to the other, vibrantly displaying its colors along the whole journey. The image is framed by the sky above it and the pool of water below it, making the massive waterfall and its brilliant rainbow companion the absolute focus.
4. Zambezi River and Victoria Falls
A wonderful aerial shot of the world’s largest waterfall. Here an entire river, wider than any in the United States, suddenly falls off the edge of cliff and plummets down to whatever lies below. The river leading up to the falls is shot through with instances of green life rising up through the waters. In front of the falls a huge spray of water can be seen — the force from so much water hitting the ground below shoots up even more water into the air. A stunning chaos meets the eyes of anyone who takes in this photograph.
5. Victoria Falls sunset, Zambia side
This busy picture is a feast for the eyes. Without a waterfall, these cliffs would be stunning enough, but the water pouring everywhere, and the fantastic raised angle of this picture create an absolutely breathtaking effect of natural beauty and power. The complex swirls of water below the waterfall give a satisfying conclusion to the water’s downward journey and draw in the eyes, even while something else pulls the viewer’s gaze upward. Perfectly off-centered and floating about the rest of the scene in the image is a brilliant sun, just beginning its descent and shaded behind thin clouds.
6. Waterfall and log
A simple, yet delightful, image of the strange accidents that can happen in nature. Here the water seems not torrential, but peaceful and calming, flowing down a stream, off one edge of land, and then falling off another before pooling around the picture’s main focus. Rising up from the main body of water in the image is a single log, clearly smoothed over by the constant running water. The log is there by accident, placed at a spot that seemed random to all but the photographer who made it photogenic and beautiful. A wonderful transformation!
7. Lower Falls
Here is a sweeping view of a mountainous terrain marked by stark trees and a massive waterfall that hangs in the leftmost third of the image. This kind of picture would be perfectly in place at the beginning of a film on nature, or some kind of adventure epic. The shot seems to zoom into this landscape, which expands quickly and entirely encompasses the focus of the viewer, drawing them into the scene. Sharp cliffs create jagged edges that are just as eye-catching as the magnificent waterfall that is the focus of the photograph.
8. Rainbow over Gullfoss Waterfall – Iceland
Iceland is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth, and this picture perfectly shows off one of these. A wide river with short banks pours down the land, creating large but surprisingly shallow waterfalls that launch spray up into the air. The image manages to capture the rainbow created by the spray, along with other aspects that make this area so unique — a small road running parallel to the water, the expansive plains stretching out in every directions, seemingly endless in their reach. It’s a simple and amazingly serene scene captured here.
9. Tonti Canyon Falls – Illinois
The Tonti Canyon waterfalls seen in this picture almost seem like they’ve come out of a fantasy video game. The falls are thin, with little more water than a shower at half power, and their water collects in tiny pools beneath them. Two waterfalls are seen here, and the one in the background obscures the entrance to a cave that shoots back into perfect inky darkness. The waterfall in the foreground shimmers with light that’s managed to sneak down into the canyon, furthering the sense that this is some kind of fantasy location, filled with magic.
10. Waterfall in deep forest
This image is vibrant and bright, full of life and rejuvenating in its own right. The original photograph was skillfully taken; the waterfall that serves as the focus is locked into the right third of the picture, with the left two-thirds occupied by brilliant blue water and all sorts of greenery. What makes this image really *shine* is the editing. The colors have been brightened and brought to life, and the entire scene glows as though radiating with its very own sun. The sun within the photo peaks above some trees and shines out over the gorgeous scene.
11. Deep forest Waterfall in Kanchanaburi
This is an unbelievable photograph of incredible beauty. The forest featured here is going through the peak changes of fall, and the oranges, reds, and yellows that its leaves have become shine wonderfully in their places. Jutting out of the tree covered landscape is a wispy waterfall that seems to be moving faster than it needs to, shooting out of the forest opening with incredible force, misting over the air before landing in the body of water beneath it, a perfect and shocking sky-blue pool that accents the other colors in the photograph with thoughtful grace.
12. Waterfall in green forest
A sense of quiet is given off by this very relaxing picture marked by soft, cool colors, and the presence of crystal clear, gently flowing water. Looking here, one can imagine the sound of this gentle waterfall splashing over rocks on its way down to a small pond that’s been gathered up in this quiet space amidst the trees. A perfect forest scene for relax and a sense of calm, this picture has a depth to it that few others are able to capture. The detail-oriented shooting is what gives this image its impeccable aesthetic.
13. Stunning Waterfall
Tucked into a small space hidden by steep, brilliant red cliffs, here is a torrential waterfall pouring into a near-perfect body of water. This picture is exciting, vibrant, and pure. Green moss climbs its way up out of the water, clinging to the red cliffside that plunges down into the water. At the edges of the pond green trees are springing up and into life. Here is an oasis, hidden beneath the cliffs. The contrasts in colors here are a delight to the eye, and the sense of power that this waterfall has is perfectly conveyed by the photograph.
14. Aqua Azul waterfall in Chiapas Mexico
This photo shows a waterfall that isn’t as powerful and full-force as some others, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive. The waterfall that can be seen here is spread wide, and it carefully works its way down a series of rocks, spreading out in two directions as it falls and fills the pool beneath it. The stones beneath the water are an incredible yellow — a color that becomes hidden beneath the larger pool of water, but that still manages to peak up in occasional spots. This picture shows off a perfect place to swim and explore.
15. Seljalandfoss waterfall at sunset in HDR, Iceland
A more picture-perfect scene might not exist on the planet Earth. This image shows a fantastic waterfall pouring down from some unseen sight just about the camera. The water lands in a small pool that turns into a wide stream, which can be seen stretching off into the distance, wandering through a lush green plains area before finally disappearing over the horizon, where it meets with a sun that is just about to descend beneath the horizon, as though it, too, feels compelled to follow the path of the water. It doesn’t get better than this right here.
16. Waterfall in Vietnam
A more summer-colored waterfall scene can hardly be imagined. Everywhere surrounding the water here is green, and spots of moss can be seen through the water itself, as well. The dirt and sand that covers the ground is a calming yellow, and gentle yellow sunlight filters down through the trees, illuminating the water and the dust that floats through the air. The spot in this image is serene, warm and peaceful, and the waterfall featured here comes down its cliff in fits and starts, rather than as one massive collective of force. This is a quiet, personal space.
17. Banyue waterfall
A waterfall at sunset. The sun is descending below the cover of trees that line the top of the cliff where the waterfall originates. The sky has been lit up with all varieties of blues and purples. These colors are stunning, and the water below them reflect the light, changing its colors and creating a sort of unity between land and sky. The waterfall itself is stretched out, falling in multiple chunks, all landing in a wide, slow flowing river that expands on it’s way through ever more trees and wonderfully colored landscapes.
18. Deep forest Waterfall in Kanchanaburi, Thailand
A thick covering of thin trees, trunks stretching up towards the sky, branches intermingling with those of the surrounding trees, lush green leaves draping themselves over the ground, obscuring the sky but still allowing some light to filter through, frame this beautiful shot of a waterfall in Thailand. The water as it falls is a shining white, and as it collects at the bottom is becomes a perfect blue, even better than the clear water you’ve seen at your local swimming pool. The image is almost as refreshing as the place that it depicts must be. A perfect natural scene.
19. Waterfall Saltillo, national park Lanin
A waterfall as seen from behind, with the camera tucked neatly into a cave that might be obscured from the water on the other side. From this vantage the waterfall itself looks like little more than a spurt of liquid shooting out over the tops of trees beneath it. Clearly the the water above is flowing very rapidly. The pool where all the water collects can’t be seen from this spot, but in the distance mountains, separated by something, possible the water itself, can be seen. This image speaks of a region that is begging to be explored and enjoyed.
20. Blue sky
This looks like a private place, like a waterfall that someone might make artificially to tuck in the back of their lavish, too-expensive house. The source of the water can’t be seen from here, but viewers can see the water spill through an opening in rocks that leads down to a small pool, collected in a sort of basin that’s been formed by the ground above it breaking apart. Through the hole from which the water escapes, the tops of trees and a tiny slice of blue sky can be seen. Here’s a place where someone could come to be entirely alone in nature.
21. Beautiful Desert Waterfall
Waterfalls and deserts don’t seem to go together, but this picture captures the crazy juxtaposition of the two and shows how they feed off each other. Desert rocks, red and brown, frame this waterfall, which shoots over the rocks and lands down in a shallow pool. Everywhere that the water touches changes, the desert transforms, and all sorts of green life explodes from these points of contact. The water brings life to the desert, just as the desert bring a solid frame to the water. This isn’t quite an oasis, but it’s still an unexpected spot of life in the heat.
22. Plitvice
Here is a waterfall that is barely a waterfall at all, and everywhere around it is so much green that it almost looks unnatural. Tiny, nearly insignificant spurts of water burst forth from the forest ring around the large body of water that comprises the center of this image. The spurts fly out and land in the larger body which is colored a deep forest green, deeper even than the greens that are apparent in the trees above the water. The sun shoots through the middle of the photo, illuminating the entire scene with a magical kind of light.
23. Waterfall in Iceland – Seljalandsfoss
So many details all packed into one beautiful image. The centerpiece is, of course, the waterfall, which flows over the face of a massive stone cliff, collecting in a pool that quickly becomes a large stream that winds it’s way out from under the cliff and through expansive plains that possibly serve as farmland for the people who live there. A small bridge can be seen crossing over this stream, and way off in the distance a tiny cottage house can be seen, housing people who get to appreciate this incredible view every day of their lives.
24. Iguazu fall panorama
This photograph looks less like a nature shot and more like an advertisement for some fancy tropical resort. This waterfall is not only incredibly expansive, it’s also multi-tiered. Some sections plummet straight down into the river where the water can continue its journey, but others first strike against a sort of landing, creating all sorts of levels and sections of different pools of water. Between that and the amount of plant life that’s crept among these waterfalls, this picture becomes incredibly detailed and layered. It’s a real adventure for the eyes to wander around and try to spot every little detail.
25. Another from Iguasu falls
The place featured in this picture looks like a theme park for waterfalls. The main focus of the image is a single section of the falls that lands on a massive natural terrace where the water can pool and swirl before plunging even further down towards the Earth, but off in the distance even more waterfalls can be see. They extend for miles in multiple directions, creating the sense that this is another world, populated more by water than by life. There is, however, plenty of life in this picture, too. Plants and humans abound amidst the waters.
26. Gullfoss Fall Iceland
The picture looks like a scene out of a disaster movie. The ground in the middle of the picture has split into a deep gorge, and that gorge is right in the middle of a body of water. The water plunges down into the gorge, creating an unbelievable sight. As if that weren’t good enough, this entire scene is taking place at sunset, and beams of light are scattered all throughout the picture, creating shocking contrast in some areas and illuminating the scene in a ghostly, dream-like way. This is a one in a million camera shot.
27. Chunjeyun Waterfall
This waterfall looks like the kind of false shower fixtures that you can sometimes find at public pools. The water is spraying out over a short drop and scattering across rocks that are as black as a night sky. The entire picture is rather dark — all the stones around the waterfall are black, and other than the soft white of the water and the dark greens of some leaves, there isn’t much color to be found. Rather than feeling ominous, though, the lack of color is somewhat soothing and gives this photo a calming atmosphere.
28. Waterfall
Some clever and creative editing gives this picture a sense of vibrant and active life. The waterfall featured here is placed in the background, with a tree in all shades of yellow and orange taking up the entire foreground and most of the frame altogether. Still, that waterfall is incredibly eye-catching, in part because it’s made of an elaborate series of forks rather than being one straight stream of water. Light saturates the image, lighting up different sections of the picture with all the different colors of the rainbow. The photo aches of autumn, and benefits from that.
29. Ouzoud Waterfalls in Morocco
This picture could be the opening shot of an adventure movie. The water is moving down a layered cliff-face, picking up speed, splashing down into a river that has a slight green tinge to it. On either side of this waterfall are light brown stones covered in a thick layer of green moss. Faintly, you can see the traces of spray coming off the falls and filling the air. This must be the main source of life for all the moss in the area. Way in the distance, at the top of the falls, a large tree looms over the scene.
30. Waterfall “Cascad ozoud”
Straight out of a travel brochure for people who like to climb up cliff faces comes this amazing shot of a series of waterfall. There’s so many great things in this picture. At the top of the image multiple waterfalls sprout from the rocks, which are shrouded by a healthy coating of moss. The falls all land in a pool that’s housed on another section of cliff. From there they combine into a massive flood of water, which pours down into the river with tremendous force. Right in front of this is a brilliant rainbow, shooting across the frame. Perfect!
31. Akaka Falls
This photo features one great spurt of a waterfall that dives into a massive hole in the ground which looks like it was punched out by some tremendous impact. The picture itself is disorienting — someone clearly played with the focus on the shot — and staring at it for too long gives you the sense that you, too, are falling into that deep well of earth, following the waterfall along it’s path. The colors add to this feeling, as everything but the water and the pit is a blurred sea of green, from grass to trees to moss.
32. Wailua Falls near Lihue in Kauai
Here’s a tremendous photo of a waterfall that clearly has a lot of force behind it. Trees cover the entire area around the fall, but they suddenly disappear as the water drops into a huge pit, the bottom of which can’t be seen in this image. The water is coming from the edge of a stark cliff face, plummeting down into the unknown depths, and picking up so much momentum that a massive mist is shot up into the air on impact. The mist looks like a huge cloud floating just at the top of the tree cover. It’s phenomenal.
33. Waterfall
A waterfall in a majestic landscape is featured here, and it almost looks like something taken out of a video game. The top of this waterfall can’t be seen in the image, but the plains that spiral out from it can. Most waterfalls drop into a river or a massive lake, but this one drops into a pool situated amidst green fields. It looks as though the cliff that houses the waterfall is some kind of anomaly in the landscape. In the distance, people who’ve come to admire the view in person can be seen. It’s a shockingly homely scene.
34. Tropical waterfall
The water in this picture is a shocking shade a bright blue, even brighter than the sky that it surely reflects. The water seems to be coming out of a semi-enclosed gap in the cliff face above it, a secretive tunnel from which the water explodes, flying into the open landscape of this picture. There’s something strangely artificial about the image, a sense that’s apparent both in the too-vibrant colors and the picnic table that someone’s placed near the water. That one lonely table certainly seems out of place, but it lends some intrigue into this nature shot.
35. Yellowstone National Park Waterfall
This picture is a series of delightful juxtapositions. A far as the eye can see tall pine trees cover the land, but there are a few breaks in the scene. The biggest one is the massive waterfall that plunges off a stone cliff into another segment of river. This draws the eyes in, and the trees frame the scene perfectly. Then, peeking from between the trees, situated about halfway back into the picture, is a large bridge, cement and gray, but a somehow pleasant sight as it emerges from that endless, monotonous sea of green.
36. Yosemite waterfall
Here is a tremendous, and chilly, shot of a waterfall in Yosemite National Park. An incredible mountain rises from the earth in the foreground of this shot, and in the background several more peaks like it can be seen. From the center of the mountain, a brilliantly white waterfall erupts, visible for miles in every direction. As the water plunges downward, the grounds that meets it is covered in a thin layer of frost and snow, and the white of each blends together, becoming indistinguishable to the eye. Green trees fill the gap between this mountain and the others.
37. Waterfall in shifen taiwan
This incredible, terraced waterfall looks like it belongs in the garden of some eccentric rich zillionare, but it’s a creation that comes straight from nature. The water flow here is slow, so it gets to trickle along and fully explore each segment of the terraced descent to the rest of the stream, allowing it to clear up and offer us a look at the stones beneath. Everything is smooth and even in this picture. It’s a peaceful scene, and it’s one that is strangely auditory, if you stare at this picture and block out everything else, you can stand next to the water, hear it flow.
38. Another Waterfall in shifen taiwan
A wide lake set down into the ground. A waterfall pouring into it. A rainbow shooting through the air. A huge mountain overlooking the entire scene. It doesn’t get much better than this. Here’s a picture that perfectly encapsulates an area, a scene, and a feeling. It’s wistful, and fills you with the urge not just to travel to this exact spot, but just to travel, to see the world and fully live in it. The open sky that takes up the top third of the photograph screams of possibility and excitement. And the waterfall below it hurries you along.
39. Rochester falls
So many things in this picture are calling for your attention. The waterfall that is the centerpiece of the image is the obvious attention-grabber. However, the foreground is arguably just as interesting. There are so many layers to this shoreline, from rocks to roots to plain ol’ earth. And, if that’s not enough for your greedy eyes, the subtle star of this entire picture is the rocky wall that the waterfall protrudes from. It is a latticework of pocks and dents, raised bits, and stunning, mesmerizing geometrical shapes. There’s enough material in here for you to absorb it for hours.
