Kvernufoss Waterfall

Local name: Kvernufoss

The cliff Kvernufoss falls from once stood above the ocean; the shoreline retreated as the land rose at the end of the last ice age.

Kvernufoss is a waterfall in the Kvernugil canyon near Skógar, in south Iceland. It is fed by meltwater from the Eyjafjallajökull glacier. The water drops from a sheer, moss-covered cliff onto a deeply recessed shelf of black basalt, and that recess lets walkers pass behind the falls when the ground is free of snow. The way in is a path of less than a kilometre from the Skógar Museum car park, up the canyon. Skógafoss stands nearby and takes most of the traffic, so Kvernufoss stays quieter.

Waterfall

Entrance: Free (parking fee at the museum)
Accessibility: Not wheelchair accessible: there is no step-free entrance, and the approach is an unsurfaced path up the canyon.
Parking: Paid car park at the Skógar Museum, where the path starts. The parking fee also covers use of the museum toilets.
Difficulty: Less than a kilometre each way from the Skógar Museum car park, on a well-maintained path with little height gain. Wet rock at the falls.
Transport: Self-drive (Ring Road); park at Skógar
Hours: Open 24 hours, every day.
Address: 861 Evindarhólar, near Skógar

What makes it special

From the Ring Road (Hringvegur) you see the gorge, not the waterfall. Kvernufoss sits inside it, falling from a moss-covered cliff onto a deeply recessed shelf of black basalt. The recess is the point: when the ground is free of snow you can walk in behind the water and look back down the Kvernugil canyon. The spray never stops, so on sunny days a rainbow stands in the gorge, sometimes a double one. Close in it is loud, where the water lands. The cliff itself is older than the view suggests — it once looked out over the sea, and the shoreline moved away only when the land rose at the end of the last ice age.

Good to know

You will get wet. Spray blows across the ground behind the falls — a waterproof jacket and trousers, not just a hood.
Snow stops the walk behind. The basalt shelf is passable only when free of snow. Over snow or ice, stay in front.
Toilets are in the Skógar Museum, by the car park where the path starts.
Quieter than Skógafoss. The bigger waterfall nearby takes most of the traffic; Kvernufoss draws far fewer people.

Getting there

The gorge is visible from the Ring Road (Hringvegur), but the waterfall inside it is not. Drivers park at the Skógar Museum and walk less than a kilometre along the path up the canyon. The trail is well maintained and gains little height. At the end it drops to the foot of the falls, where the basalt shelf carries on behind the water when there is no snow on it.

Best time to visit

Best: a sunny day with the ground free of snow. Sun on the spray puts a rainbow in the gorge, and a snow-free shelf is what lets you walk behind the water.

Avoid: days with snow or ice on the shelf, if going behind the falls is the reason you came.

Kvernufoss stays quiet while Skógafoss next door does not, so it also works as a break from the crowds there.

Sun & daylight

Museum

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