Skogafoss Waterfall

Most Icelandic waterfalls keep you at a distance. Skógafoss does not: you can walk to the foot of the drop and stand in front of it, and you hear the water well before you reach it. Get close and the spray soaks you within minutes. On sunny days that same spray throws a rainbow, single or sometimes double, across the front of the falls.

The other view is from above. A staircase on the eastern side climbs the old sea cliff to a platform at the lip, and the trail carries on upstream past a run of further waterfalls. Birds nest in pairs along the cliff faces beside the falls.

• Waterproof layer: the spray at the base soaks you through within minutes, jacket and camera alike.
• Time: the base plus 527 steps up and back takes longer than a coach stop allows, and people turn back before the top.
• Toilets: free public toilets, about 630 m from the falls.
• Rainbow: the spray is constant, so sun on it puts a rainbow, sometimes double, in front of the water.
• Beyond the top: the trail continues upstream past several more waterfalls.

There is no driving up to the falls. Cars stop in the paid car parks and the rest of the approach is on foot, past information boards set near the water. To reach the top you take the staircase on the eastern side: 527 steps up the old sea cliff to the viewing platform. The same route carries on beyond the platform as the trail to the Fimmvörðuháls pass.

Better: a clear, sunny day, and late in the evening or at night in summer.

Avoid: a stop on a tight coach schedule.

Sun on the spray is what makes the rainbow, so weather matters more here than the hour. The site does empty out late — at 1 am in July there can be two other people on the whole approach. A guided stop that has to cover both the base and the stairs leaves too little time for either.