Best after rain: Waterfall discharge and the tourist experience

Abstract

When visiting waterfalls, tourists are often disappointed to find the flow much less than they were led to expect by published descriptions and images. It is widely believed that falls are seen at their best when the discharge is great, particularly after heavy rain, a view commonly expressed in guidebooks. The appeal of waterfalls as tourist attractions may be explained by their being curiosities of nature, things not normally part of everyday experience, and which possess a range of aesthetic qualities. While, for those in search of the Sublime or merely the superlative, great size is often important, small waterfalls can give much pleasure to lovers of landscape beauty. Even little falls, however, are commonly believed to be at their best when the stream is swollen. Drawing on tourist and travel literature and personal journals from the eighteenth century to the present, and with reference to examples from northern England and other parts of the world, this paper discusses the importance of discharge in the tourist experience of waterfalls.