We had studied the AllTrails app for a day in hopes of finding a new hike out of St Pierre, Martinique. Cascade de rois, aka, Waterfall of Kings, seemed to be within reach from this lovely old French town in the north part of the island where we were anchored. The trailhead appeared to be 1 mile up the main road. . It was a busy highway at 9am and in the hot sun we were wondering if we made the right decision to attempt this. Of course, its uphill and not 1 mile but quite almost 2 when we approached an old steel bridge, heard water and spotted a small dirt path off one side. It lead directly to the water. At first, we thought we just had to make a crossing in 6 inches of crystal clear mountain water to get on the trail. With our feet wet, we soon realized it WAS the trail.

The Roxalene River snaked right and left on its way to the Caribbean Sea, through deep green and rocky canyons on both sides. We would occasionally come to a dry spur out off the river that would take us up and around the boulders from which spilled gallons of rainforest water.  We did rock hopping,  climbed over downed palms and bamboo, skirted under dark cave-like foliage, and waded through knee deep passages to get up through the next rapids. The footing was mostly gravel and sand and thankfully relatively stable.

An hour and 15 min into the trek we checked our location and had made it 2/3rds the way to our destination. After a handful of peanuts and sip of water, we were determined to complete the task. We passed bird of paradise, hibiscus, tiny wild orchids and heard a melody of birds high in the trees that towered our trail,  reminding us that we were in the heart of Martinique’s rainforest. 

As we progressed deeper into the forest, we would suddenly detect more intense rushing water and think ..”oh yay….we’re there!”.. to round the next turn and find several huge boulders and more water coming from upstream but no falls. The river finally began to narrow as we felt a cold rush of air mixed with a fresh mist and heard powerful rush of water as the water got deeper and colder.

We had arrived.

We stripped to swimsuits and waded as far and deep as was safe, keeping enough distance to avoid a shear pummeling from the incredible amount of water flowing over the rocks nearly 40 ft up in this narrow rock wall canyon as the sunlight filtered through the mist and palm fronds.

Struck by the awesomeness of this experience and this beautiful hidden wonder,  we enjoyed it like true explorers and royalty. Just us and the water.