Krong Kmar Falls

From the top of the Chư Yang Sin range, the water does not follow a straight path. It leaps from boulder to boulder, gathers in small green pools, then spills onto the step below. This is how the Krông Kmar makes its falls: not one lone drop but a chain of steps, one after another, in the middle of the forest.

The falls lie in the Krông Bông area of Đắk Lắk province. They are about 60 kilometers southeast of the city of Buôn Ma Thuột. Behind the steps of the falls rises the Chư Yang Sin range, where the water begins its journey.

Chư Yang Sin is more than a mountain range. It is the core of Chư Yang Sin National Park, which was established in 2002. The park reaches over 58,947 hectares of land in the Krông Bông and Lắk areas. The forest here is high mountain forest, thick and green all year round. It shelters hundreds of rare species of animals and plants of the Central Highlands.

From that forest the Krông Kmar flows out. The water soaks through the forest soil and gathers into streams. Then it meets the steep ground at the foot of the mountains and starts to tumble down in steps of stone.

The scenery has the look of a Central Highlands waterfall. These are not the smooth cliffs of the limestone mountains in the north. Here the rock is granite, flat and wide, worn by the water over a long time into broad surfaces that lie spread out like mats. The water slides across the rock, gathers in small, bright green pools, and falls onto the next step. Green forest closes in on every side, and the sound of water and the sound of birds blend into one sound that people from the lowlands rarely hear.

Early in the morning, beside one of these steps, mist still clings to the treetops along the bank, and the water holds the reflection of a highland sky before the sun turns harsh. The rock underfoot is wet and cool. The water above keeps coming down, as if it has never stopped and never will.

That is what the Krông Kmar keeps there, in the mountain forest of Krông Bông.