It usually turns up by the second week of June, with ceremony. A heavy cloud, a proper warning, someone on the café porch saying "there it is" while pointing at the ridge. This year it did not wait. It began on the 4th of April, quietly, without asking.
I walked up at first light, mostly because the dogs wouldn't settle. The trail is shorter than you remember and longer than your shoes expect. By the time I reached the top pool there was already enough water to make a sound. Not the sound of June — deeper, colder, less confident.
"A waterfall in April is a waterfall that hasn't decided yet." — note from the cook, 2023
Three new pools, by our count.
Last monsoon we had seven pools on the upper trail, eight if you counted the one behind the boulder that was really more of a puddle. This year there are ten, possibly eleven. One of them is deep enough to sit in and narrow enough to forget about until you don't.
We think it started because of the unseasonal showers in March. The catchment above the ridge held on to some water, and when the first warm days arrived, it let it go. Three weeks early but not obviously unhappy about it.
What's practical, for guests.
The trail is safe. The lower pool is swimmable. The rappelling setup we usually rig in July is not up yet — we'd rather wait for the monsoon to commit. If you are here before the 20th of May, the waterfall is a quiet, early version of itself; come in a month, it will be the loud one.
We'll update this page once the monsoon proper arrives. If you want to be notified, the slow newsletter goes out every last Sunday.
