France 
In numbers.
300m
Height
OpenStreetMap
Jan–Apr
Best months
976m
Elevation
The water at Trou de Fer, month by month
It roars from February to March.
The fullest months: from February to March. The thinnest: from June to December.
- 71%Jan
- 81%Feb
- 100%Mar
- 69%Apr
- 42%May
- 24%Jun
- 16%Jul
- 14%Aug
- 14%Sep
- 13%Oct
- 18%Nov
- 22%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from January to April.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Canyon on Reunion Island
Trou de Fer is a waterfall in France. The water falls 300 m. It lies within Réunion National Park.
Getting there.
- Salazienearest town · 2.3 km in a straight line
- Parking 1,760 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Roland Garros Airport (RUN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 17 km in a straight lineCar hire at RUN airport (Sainte-Marie)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From January to Aprilbest 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 as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
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 489 m in 2.2 km. Here the river runs about 219 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 6viewpointsTrou de Fer and 5 more
- 2waymarked walking routesSentier du Trou de Fer, Sentier de l'École normale
- 9car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 1toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 3other named waterfalls within 4 kmVoile de la Mariée, Cascade Blanche, Cascade des demoiselles
- —caves
- 4campsitesSite de Bivouac, Bivouac, Camping à la Ferme Le Relax and 1 more
- 43hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmLes Jardins d’Héva, Chez Alice, La Mandoze and 40 more
- 2restaurants 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
- Salazie2.3 km in a straight line
- La Plaine-des-Palmistes13 km in a straight line
- Saint-André13 km in a straight line
- Bras-Panon14 km in a straight line
- Cilaos14 km in a straight line
- Sainte-Suzanne16 km in a straight line
- Sainte-Marie16 km in a straight line
- La Mare16 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 | 24 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 20 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 23 |
| Night °C | 19 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 17 | 18 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 140 | 114 | 143 | 76 | 53 | 37 | 31 | 31 | 33 | 34 | 46 | 55 |
| Wet days | 19 | 18 | 19 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 14 |
| Sun h/day | 8.7 | 8.8 | 8.3 | 8.3 | 7.8 | 7.6 | 7.8 | 8.6 | 9.4 | 9.8 | 10.1 | 10.1 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (976 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 | 211% | 53% | 165% | 54% | 55% | 98% | 139% | 68% | 84% | 127% | 29% | 57% |
| 2021 | 28% | 40% | 93% | 425% | 63% | 159% | 97% | 112% | 57% | 145% | 26% | 116% |
| 2022 | 135% | 151% | 69% | 142% | 42% | 103% | 111% | 96% | 65% | 44% | 27% | 38% |
| 2023 | 129% | 36% | 64% | 136% | 78% | 111% | 75% | 125% | 24% | 31% | 159% | 91% |
| 2024 | 199% | 67% | 89% | 160% | 75% | 184% | 36% | 77% | 79% | 80% | 60% | 36% |
| 2025 | 25% | 165% | 98% | 99% | 82% | 45% | 94% | 108% | 80% | 55% | 134% | 284% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Trou de Fer
France
- 300 mHeight
- —Average flow
- Jan–AprBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q593481) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| 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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