Nuorilang Waterfall (诺日朗瀑布 [Nuòrìlǎng Pùbù])

The Nuorilang Waterfall (诺日朗瀑布 [Nuòrìlǎng Pùbù]; Promising Bright Bay Waterfall) enjoys a near roadside position so Julie and I noticed that it tends to grab the attention and title of the most famous waterfall in

Draining the so-called Mirror Lake, this year-round waterfall sees its best flow in late Summer and Autumn. We were there in the Spring where the waterfall wasn't particularly spectacular as there was plenty of exposed underlying rocks with the falls stringy and segmented along the length of its wall.

And like the Pearl Shoal Waterfall, it was possible for us to take photos of this falls with the stunning alpine mountain backdrop if we were seeing it from a high enough vantage point. I think as we got lost in the moment, we completely overlooked the fact that we could've (and should've) gotten that higher vantage point view. I guess we'll have to look forward to doing that next time, if we're fortunate to return here.

We visited this waterfall as part of a short 15-minute shuttle walk starting from the boardwalk entrance a few paces north of the visitor center complex and finished at another shuttle stop further to the north downstream of the waterfall. This boardwalk went directly across the front of the Nuorilang Waterfall, but I admit we didn't stick around to see how we could've obtained that upper contextual view of the falls that I so coveted.

How would we know? We were part of an unruly group that waited for nearly a half-hour or so as numerous buses would pass right by us. When one finally came to pick us up, you can imagine the stampede (no such thing as lining up in an orderly fashion in China apparently) as people pushed and shoved their way to squeeze onto the limited space in the bus. Definitely not a place to be for the timid!

To get to Jiuzhaigou, it was about a 90- to 120-minute drive to get from the Jiuzhai Airport town near the park entrance.

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Foliage growing all around and within the falls

Angled view of the falls

In case you're curious, this is what Long Lake looks like

I believe this is the Five-Colored Pool near Long Lake. It's hard to believe that it's this colorful even though it's not a thermal spring!

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Sweep of the width of the falls from one of the leftmost spots