About Do Quyen Waterfall / Rhododendron Falls (Thác Đỗ Quyên)
Do Quyen Waterfall (Thác Đỗ Quyên) or Rhododendron Falls could very well be the tallest waterfall in Vietnam if you’re counting waterfalls with the tallest singular drop.
Although it hasn’t been officially measured (to my knowledge), from looking at my Gaia GPS topo map, I estimate the main drop to be about 150m tall.
If you stretch out the Do Quyen Stream to include its possible cumulative height, I measured it to be about 210m tall (though I’ve seen other estimates of 240m, 300m, and even 400m).
That would put it among the tallest waterfalls in Southeast Asia (let alone Vietnam), but only if you’re counting the tallest singular drop of any component of its overall height.
Calling it the tallest waterfall outright might be controversial since there are taller mountain cascades like the unnamed waterfall under Fansipan Mountain, the Thac Toc Tien Waterfall at Ba Na Hills, or other seasonal ones currently lacking in notoriety.
That said, often times, it’s tempting to get caught up in numbers (thinking that it’s a proxy for how much of a legit attraction the waterfall would be), but numbers alone don’t tell the story.
So does the Do Quyen Waterfall live up to this standard due to its impressive height figures thrown about in the literature?
Hiking To The Top Of The Do Quyen Waterfall
To find out, we had to earn our visit to the Do Quyen / Rhododendron Waterfall, which began from a trailhead high up the mountains within Bach Ma National Park (see directions below).
We first had to pay the entrance fees (I believe we paid 60k VND per adult and 20k VND per child as of our late April 2025 visit) at the Bach Ma Visitor Center before spending about an hour going up its French-built mountain road.
Once at the trailhead, we then promptly followed a well-developed trail that’s mostly concrete as it passed by interpretive signs as well as generally going downhill to the top of the Do Quyen Waterfall.
Along the way, there was an impressive shrine or temple as well as a small lake acting as one of the main suppliers of the Do Quyen Stream and its waterfall.
There was also a spur trail that went to the 5 Lakes (with waterfalls of their own), but we neither had the time nor energy for it.
Our Da Nang guide went so far as to say that the hike was an even sketchier than the one we were on (perhaps to discourage any thoughts of extending our day beyond the Do Quyen Waterfall).
Anyways, this part of the trail lasted for 1.7km (each way), and it took us about 45 minutes or so.
Once we were at the top of the falls, there were little pools between the brink of the falls and the suspension bridge that you can cool off in.
However, other than a panorama of the remote downstream scenery, you don’t really get a satisfying view of the waterfall itself (especially if you don’t want to chance it by going past the rope barricades).
In order to do that, we then had to continue down the steepest part of the trail, which involved a reported 689 steep and uneven series of concrete steps.
The 689 Steps To The Bottom Of The Do Quyen Waterfall
While I generally tend to associate downhill hikes with going faster and spending less energy, these steps were actually the slowest part of the hike due to its steepness (especially since any one misstep and fall could be fatal).
Early on during this descent, we noticed a spur trail that had a roped barricade plus a sign saying “Don’t Go This Way!”
I suspect that was for a zipline that definitely wasn’t operational during our visit, and it seemed like the platform supporting it might have also been damaged.
Had it not been deemed unsafe, it might have afforded us a more top down profile glimpse of the main drop of the Rhododendron Falls (without going all the way to the bottom).
Nevertheless, this steep descent did not yield any views of the Do Quyen Waterfall throughout, and it went on for about another 50 minutes or so (going away from the falls before curving back towards its base).
During our late April 2025 visit, there was a fallen tree that took out a section of the concrete steps so there was rope set up to allow us to get past the cleared tree-damaged spot while mitigating the risk of injury here.
Once we finally made it down to the bottom, there was a canopied camp with chairs that let us have a picnic lunch while also recovering a bit before the climb back out.
At the end of the official trail, just past the canopied campsite, there was a rest bench as well as a somewhat obstructed view of the Rhododendron Waterfall (thanks to a tree that was in the way).
I managed to do a little scrambling to get beneath that tree and onto a rock slab that afforded me the best views of the Do Quyen Waterfall that I was able to get.
That said, there were some people on a guided tour with helmets that continued beyond where I was standing to get to a rope-aided ascent onto a slab that got you next to the base of the waterfall’s tallest drop.
I didn’t bother doing that as I judged that the views wouldn’t be any better than from where I was standing (so the risk versus reward wasn’t worth it).
In fact, I witnessed one guy who took a nasty fall after taking an ill-advised shortcut to that rock slab bypassing the rope-aided ascent.
Anyways, after having our fill of the Do Quyen Waterfall, we then had to get back all that elevation loss (which was taxing, but my 73-year-old Mom was able to do it).
It took us about 40 minutes to get back to the top of the waterfall (steep trails tend to be easier to ascend than descend), and it took another 40 minutes to quickly return to the trailhead.
When all was said and done, the GPS logs said that we had hiked about 4km round trip, but we spent about 3.5 hours away from the car given the upside-down nature of the trail (i.e. going down first then coming back up).
Background Of The Thac Do Quyen Waterfall & Its Surroundings
The Do Quyen Waterfall, which translates to Rhododendron Waterfall, was said to have gotten its name from the rhododendron or azalea flowers that would bloom around the falls in March and April.
It’s said that these wildflowers not only bloom around the waterfall (personally I didn’t notice them), but they can also pop up throughout the rest of the forest of Bach Ma National Park.
Speaking of which, the unique and biodiverse ecosystem in this part of the Truong Son Mountain Range has a lot to do with its combination of elevation and climate.
In fact, the name bạch mã means “white horse” as someone imagined that the mountainous terrain would frequently give rise to clouds being shaped like a horse when seen from afar.
Some of the things that stood out to us concerning our hike to the Rhododendron Falls had a lot to do with the cooler air (at least compared to lower elevations closer to the sea) and even a surprise sighting of a red-colored monkey.
As far as the Rhododendron Stream was concerned, it was one of the source streams that fed tributaries eventually merging into the famed Perfume River flowing through Hue City.
The reserve had seen a bit of a resurgence in tourism in recent years after once being built up by the French as a way for VIPs and well-to-do to escape the heat and humidity of the basin area during the 1950s.
In fact, the village up here grew to 139 villas and hotels, and it was even known as the “Dalat of Central Vietnam” as it was perhaps a precursor to mountain resorts like in Dalat and in Ba Na Hills.
However, during the years of fighting (first for independence from the French and later the Vietnam War), this area had been abandoned until 1991 when the Bach Ma was officially classified as a national park.
Authorities
The Do Quyen Waterfall or Rhododendron Waterfall resides between Hue and Da Nang in Bach Ma National Park, which is situated in the Loc Tri Commune of the Phu Loc District in the Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam. It is administered by a combination of the local authorities of the Phu Loc District and the Vietnam Administration of Forestry. To inquire about current conditions, you may want to try the official Bach Ma National Park website.
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