Dray Sap Falls

Waterfalls can be lovely for their green color or for their height. Dray Sap, though, is lovely for its white. It is not the white of clear water but the white of spray, rising like mist over the protected forest of the Central Highlands. This is why the Ê Đê people call the place Đray Sáp, which means "Smoke Falls." That is the meaning recorded by the Lâm Đồng and Đắk Nông newspapers. When the spray climbs strongly, it looks from far away as if smoke is curling out of the forest.

Dray Sap lies on the Sêrêpốk River, one of the largest and most unusual rivers in the Central Highlands. The area once belonged to the old Đắk Nông province. After the administrative reorganization of 2025, the place names changed, and it now lies in the new Lâm Đồng province. The borders moved, but the landscape did not. A wide waterfall flows over dark basalt rock, surrounded by forest that belongs to the Đray Sáp and Gia Long Landscape Protection Area.

The state recognized this scenic spot very early. On August 3, 1991, the Ministry of Culture and Information issued Decision 1371, ranking Dray Sap Falls as a national scenic site. That placed the falls under official state protection. They are more than an ordinary tourist stop.

The size of the falls changes clearly with the season. One provincial newspaper reports that in the rainy season they stand about 12 meters high and up to 120 meters wide. In the dry season they shrink, to about 8 meters in height and between 70 and 80 meters in width. UNESCO, in its file on the Đắk Nông Global Geopark, gives a width of about 100 meters and a height of 12 meters. The sources differ because the numbers shift with the season and with the way of measuring. What a visitor feels on the spot is the sound and the moist air, and no number explains those.

What sets Dray Sap apart from an ordinary waterfall is its geology. UNESCO recognized the Đắk Nông Global Geopark in July 2020. It covers about 476,000 hectares. The whole area is a landscape shaped by volcanic activity and tropical weathering over millions of years. It holds volcanic craters, systems of lava caves, and waterfalls like Dray Sap, which pour over dark basalt. Standing before the falls means standing on this volcanic ground.

Nearby is Gia Long Falls, also a national scenic site, on the upper Sêrêpốk. A provincial newspaper mentions it together with Tắm Tiên lake. The two falls are often grouped as one cluster of scenic sites, named for Đray Sáp and Gia Long. With enough time in the day, the two make a good pair for one full outing.

Dray Sap is remembered not for any single activity. It is remembered for the sudden chill under the protected forest on a sunny day. It is remembered for the white of the "smoke falls" against the blue-black basalt. And it is remembered for the feeling of standing on land far older than any story people could tell about it.