Dynjandi Waterfall

The main fall is 100 metres high and wide with it, a bridal-veil sheet rather than a single column. Five more waterfalls lie below it — Háifoss, Úðafoss, Göngufoss, Hundafoss and Bæjarfoss — and the path from the car park passes each of them. The walk up delivers six falls, not one.

Dynjandi is the largest waterfall in the Westfjords. It and the other falls on the Dynjandisá have been protected as natural monuments since 1981. Coming from the direction of Ísafjörður, the whole fall appears at once as the road turns towards it.

• Walk: 15 to 20 minutes uphill from the car park to the base of the falls, and the same back down.
• Toilets: free toilets stand near the car park. In high season they are not always clean.
• Crowds: since the road was paved, tour buses arrive and queues form on the path up and down.
• Weather: rain, sun and rainbows can all turn up inside a single visit. Bring waterproofs.

There is no driving to the foot of the falls. The car park sits about 670 metres away, and from there a footpath climbs past the smaller waterfalls to the base of Dynjandi. Allow 15 to 20 minutes up and about the same coming down. The approach road runs over the Dynjandisheiði pass, above the top of the falls, so from that side you cross over Dynjandi before you park below it. The road is now paved.

Best: June to September, when Route 60 is reliably open and the flow is strong; come early morning or evening to miss the tour-bus crowd and catch softer light.

Avoid: the busy midday window in summer if you want it quiet, and icy shoulder-season days when the upper path turns dangerous. The flow is at its fullest in early summer, as the snow melts.