Kaieteur by Moonlight: The Waterfall You’ve Never Seen

What happens when one of Earth’s wildest waterfalls is cloaked in darkness, lit by the moon, and crowned by a rainbow born from mist and moonlight?

By day, Kaieteur Falls is thunder — a roar of whitewater plummeting from the jungle cliffs into a churning gorge below.
But at night, something else entirely unfolds.

The (very rare) tourists are gone. The air cools. The forest hushes. And the sound of the waterfall, once overpowering, becomes a steady breath in the distance.

Now, above the gorge, the sky stretches wide and clean — lit not by sun, but by moonlight. You look up and see a sky pricked with stars, the Milky Way faintly etched across the heavens. The river glows silver. And mist rises from the abyss, catching the light.

Then you see it — a gentle arc hanging in the air. A rainbow, soft and pale. But the sun is gone. What you’re seeing is a moonbow.

What Is a Moonbow?

A moonbow (or lunar rainbow) is just like a daytime rainbow — light refracted through water droplets in the air — but with one key difference: it’s caused by moonlight, not sunlight.

To see one, you need a perfect mix of rare conditions:

A bright moon, ideally near full
A clear night sky
Mist or spray from a waterfall or wet landscape
And a viewer standing at just the right angle

Unlike solar rainbows, moonbows are often faint and colourless — sometimes appearing white, or only subtly tinted. Our eyes don’t see colour well in low light. But with patience, and sometimes a camera, you can capture their delicate hues.

At Kaieteur, where the mist rises continuously from the gorge, and where light pollution doesn’t exist, the conditions are just right.
And when the moon hangs above the jungle, it paints the night with wonders.

The Science Behind the Arc: How Rainbows (and Moonbows) Form

Rainbows and moonbows are both created by a beautiful collaboration between light and water — but the conditions, brightness, and visibility differ depending on whether the light source is the sun or the moon.

Rainbows (Daylight Arcs)

Sunlight enters a raindrop or mist droplet
The light bends (refracts) as it enters the droplet
It reflects off the inside of the droplet
Then it bends again as it exits the droplet
This bending and reflection split the white light into its spectrum, forming the familiar arc of colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet

The angle between your eyes, the droplet, and the sun needs to be just right — usually around 42 degrees. That’s why rainbows are always seen opposite the sun.

Moonbows (Lunar Rainbows)

Moonbows follow the same principles — but they’re far more subtle.

The moon must be nearly full, because moonlight is much weaker than sunlight
The night must be dark and clear, with mist or fine spray in the air (like from Kaieteur’s constant plume)
Because the light is dimmer, our eyes often can’t detect full colour, making moonbows appear white or silvery

Sometimes, if your night vision adjusts well — or if you take a long-exposure photo — the colours emerge more clearly.

Both rainbows and moonbows are reminders of how light, water, and geometry combine to create phenomena that feel almost magical — but are perfectly natural.

Kaieteur After Sunset: The Waterfall You’ve Never Seen

The transformation is striking.

In daylight, Kaieteur is movement and drama — a curtain of water flinging itself off ancient stone. But under the stars, it becomes something else: eternal, timeless, reverent.

The river gleams like polished silver.
The cliffs disappear into shadow.
The sound remains, but softer — no longer competing with birdcalls or wind.
The mist floats upward in thin columns, illuminated by the moon.

Standing near the falls at night, you feel not just small, but invisible. The forest is alive, but unseen. The waterfall is right there, but veiled. The world holds its breath, and you breathe with it.

A World that Comes Alive After Dark

Night at Kaieteur isn’t empty. It’s just… different.

Nocturnal animals — frogs, bats, owls, insects — begin their nightly rituals
Some species of tree frogs can be heard singing near bromeliads
Insects gather around the plants near the mist, feeding and pollinating
The absence of light allows starscapes and celestial events to shine unobstructed

The same waterfall that dazzles at noon becomes mysterious at midnight. The same mist that sparkles with sun now glows with moonlight. It’s not less — it’s more subtle, more sacred.

Why Moonbows Matter

Moonbows aren’t just a curiosity. They’re a reminder that nature doesn’t stop performing when the sun goes down.

They tell us:

That water and light are always in conversation
That patience reveals beauty that others might miss
That even something as powerful as Kaieteur has a quieter side

For scientists, they’re a fascinating optical event — a demonstration of how our planet bends and scatters light. For travellers, they’re unforgettable. And for the soul, they are… something else entirely.

A rainbow made of moonlight. Seen only by those who stay late, wait longer, and look deeper.