France 
In numbers.
60m
Height
0.54m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr–Jun
Oct
Best months
315kW
Water power
estimate
The water at Cascade du Ray-Pic, month by month
It roars in May and from October to December.
The fullest months: May and from October to December.
- 0.4 m³/sJan
- 0.3 m³/sFeb
- 0.4 m³/sMar
- 0.5 m³/sApr
- 0.5 m³/sMay
- 0.3 m³/sJun
- 0.2 m³/sJul
- 0.1 m³/sAug
- 0.2 m³/sSep
- 0.6 m³/sOct
- 0.8 m³/sNov
- 0.5 m³/sDec
From about 0.13 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.80 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to June and October.
Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall
Cascade du Ray-Pic is a waterfall in France. The water falls 60 m.
Getting there.
- Thueytsnearest town · 13 km in a straight line
- Parking 510 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Grenoble Alpes Isère Airport (GNB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 105 km in a straight lineCar hire at GNB airport (Grenoble)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to June and Octoberbest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
How big is it?
How big it really is.
Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
315 kW
About 0.54 m³/s falling 60 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 79 homes, if it were all turned into electricity
Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.
Seen from the sky.
8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.
Around the falls the river drops 266 m in 3.2 km. Here the river runs about 120 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 7viewpointsBelvedere Du Ray Pic and 6 more
- 9waymarked walking routesLachamp Raphaël - Pied du Montivernoux, Les Granges de Sausses - L'Homond, Col de Mézilhac - Lachamp Raphaël and 6 more
- 12car parks
- —swimming spots
- 1picnic sites
- 2toilets
- 5information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 4campsitesAire de camping-cars Lachamp-Raphaël, Bivouac de Pré du bois, Aire de stationnement camping-cars du Chambon and 1 more
- 17hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmLes Charmilles, Auberge Arthea, Chalet de l'areilladou and 14 more
- 1restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Thueyts13 km in a straight line
- Vals-les-Bains16 km in a straight line
- Lalevade-d'Ardèche17 km in a straight line
- Jaujac17 km in a straight line
- Le Cheylard18 km in a straight line
- Saint-Martin-de-Valamas18 km in a straight line
- Labégude18 km in a straight line
- Vesseaux21 km in a straight line
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 2 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 15 | 21 | 24 | 24 | 18 | 13 | 7 | 3 |
| Night °C | -4 | -4 | -2 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 12 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 0 | -3 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 55 | 44 | 50 | 67 | 81 | 63 | 60 | 61 | 69 | 98 | 99 | 63 |
| Wet days | 11 | 9 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 13 | 12 |
| Sun h/day | 2.7 | 4.0 | 5.8 | 6.9 | 7.4 | 9.4 | 9.8 | 8.6 | 7.0 | 4.7 | 2.9 | 2.3 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 13 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 11 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,000 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
Photos
Through visitors' eyes.
Recent years
Wet years and dry years
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 49% | 52% | 77% | 67% | 88% | 168% | 27% | 82% | 101% | 99% | 34% | 174% |
| 2021 | 114% | 80% | 41% | 106% | 147% | 113% | 164% | 59% | 110% | 105% | 55% | 119% |
| 2022 | 42% | 52% | 52% | 54% | 37% | 126% | 14% | 124% | 137% | 51% | 112% | 158% |
| 2023 | 49% | 30% | 102% | 61% | 93% | 160% | 37% | 50% | 79% | 122% | 85% | 109% |
| 2024 | 79% | 139% | 322% | 107% | 170% | 144% | 116% | 57% | 177% | 126% | 38% | 75% |
| 2025 | 108% | 76% | 94% | 73% | 46% | 42% | 63% | 60% | 81% | 61% | 67% | 110% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Cascade du Ray-Pic
France
- 60 mHeight
- 0.54 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr–Jun, OctBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q1046875) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| River flow and catchment | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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