Water is an inescapable theme in Iceland. You’re surrounded by water. The ocean relentlessly crashing on black sand beaches. Rain or snow falling from the sky. Rivers rushing over waterfalls. Steam rising from hot springs
If you’ve spent more than 30 seconds researching Iceland you’ll know the Icelandic word for waterfall is foss. Godafoss = God’s Falls, Skógafoss = Skoga river falls, and so on. And they are spectacular and everywhere.
If you take Highway 1, aka the Ring Road, aka the only way to circumnavigate Iceland, you’ll run into most of the amazing ones. Some you can see right from the highway.
I drove Highway 1 Counterclockwise, so my first waterfall was Seljalansfoss – also known as the one you can walk behind. (It should be noted this was the only place in all of Iceland I had to pay for parking.) It was a grey, windy, rainy day when I arrived. So everything was wet. I was wet, the rocks were wet, my glasses were wet, my phone was wet, my camera was wet – then the wind would shift and everything would get wetter. I was really hoping for that amazing blue sky shot from directly behind the waterfall – but as you can see those tiny little people behind the waterfall may as well be under the waterfall. There was no way my camera was coming out until I got some distance.
Bright and early the next day the clouds were still hanging ominously, but the sun was fighting back – giving me my first look at Skógafoss with a rainbow. Then it was time for morning stair-master – 370 steps up to the top and then a beautiful hike along the Skóga River as it cuts its way through the Valley, creating dozens of smaller waterfalls, islands and eddies, the water constantly cascading by at a dull roar.
Whereas Seljalandsfoss & Skógafoss were visible from the Highway, Svartifoss most certainly is not. Svartifoss is nestled in Vatnajökull National Park and is about a 45 minute hike, a 90 minute round trip would be quick
Vatnajökull National Park was the first place I got a taste that this was Autumn in Iceland. (Remember I was there at the end of September, beginning of October.) The few deciduous trees and shrubs and the ground cover were all changing into beautiful shades of red and gold, allowing Svartifoss to really stand out in its basin against the black basalt columns. It’s a hike, my iPhone thought I had done 71 flights of stairs, and it was worth every one.
The next day – now firmly in the Northeast Region the next stop is a good 40 minutes off the highway, up a gravel road in the snow. I didn’t realize until later, looking at Google Street View I had been driving next to the river for a while, it was snowing too hard for me to see it.
Dettifoss is the most powerful waterfall in Europe – the scale is sort of hard to grasp until you squint hard enough to realize the colourful dots on the other side of the river are people, and they are tiny. I stuck around just long enough to take a few photos and get my free exfoliating facial from the blowing snow, then trudged back to the car to warm up on the bumpy road back to the highway. It’s a 2 hour detour on a gravel road, but it was beautiful in the snow, I can only imagine how amazing it would be on a clear day.
Thankfully the next day it does clear up and with just a little snow left at elevation it’s off to Goðafoss one of the most historically fascinating waterfalls I’ve ever heard of. Who doesn’t love a good story of the idols of Norse Gods being cast into a waterfall for it to get its name?
Goðafoss is stunning, and immense, and yet another beautiful demonstration of Autumn colour in the ground cover vegetation. Plus it’s right off the highway and has a bridge you can walk over so you can see it from both sides.
Further up the Skjálfandafljót River is Aldeyarfoss, an otherworldly little waterfall that is surrounded by nothing but hexagonal basalt columns and crazy geological features. If you don’t have a 4WD you’ll have to hike the last part in. But I had the entire place to myself for more than 30 minutes, which is saying a lot in Iceland.
If like me, you’re going Counterclockwise, when you arrive at the bottom of the Fjord that is the boundary between the Northwest Region and the Western Fjords Region – you’ll have two choices to get to Kirkjufellsfoss. You can continue South on Highway 1 until Borgarnes, then head West – or you can head directly West, on what looks the Coastal road… Google will tell you they’re both going to take approximately 2h 15m, but the Coast road is 30km shorter.
Learn from my mistake! Take Highway 1 to Borgarnes – it’s paved. I took the Coast road, thinking – it’s along the Coast, it’s going to be beautiful. And it was, at times, but it was also some of the slowest, muddiest driving I did in all of Iceland. Kirkjufellsfoss is one of the most photographed sites in all of Iceland – and had the worst/least parking. Be warned.
But Kirkjufellsfoss really is the quintessential Icelandic photo op. Kirkjufell is the picturesque mountain that seems to be ever changing colours with the clouds and sunlight, and in the foreground 3 adorable little waterfalls.
As with all the other supernaturally beautiful locations in this country, if you can only frame out all the other people, you’ll be golden.
Seljalandsfoss 
Skogafoss 
Skoga River 
Svartifoss 
Dettifoss 
Godafoss 
Aldeyjarfoss 
Kirkjufellsfoss
