Iceland Part VII: Waterfalls
My Journey: Waterfalls on the South Shore
4/38/23, Sunday
We left the golden circle to head toward the southern shore. There were a lot of one lane bridges on this portion of the trip. Unless other wise indicated, the first to the bridge has the right of way.
Laugarás Bridge
The first land mark for this portion of the day is this statue of a puffin. The area surrounding it has some very nice waterfalls that we took the time to explore. There are also caves in the area. We did not take time to explore them.
Big Puffin
The parking area at Seljalandsfoss will allow you to explore the majority of the falls in the area. You will have to do some walking but this is a gentile hike. There is a water fall here that you can walk behind that is a must!
It takes time to get pictures without other people in them. This place was busy and it was only the shoulder season.
Seljalandsfoss
You can follow the trail around the water fall and then walk along the foot of the cliff where there are several small falls.
There some small caves and cannons you can explore on your way to the highlight of this stop.
The best part of this stop is Gljufrabui waterfall that is in a canyon. You have to walk in the stream bed that comes out of the canyon and you will need your wet gear here. You will have to wait your turn as people all try to get their Instagram shot. Not all tourist are as considerate as others. We did have to work around some people who were taking an inordinate amount of time.
This waterfall was one of my favorites of the trip and absolute must stop! There were some other falls I wanted to visit but the road to them appeared to be closed.
Gljufrabui
On our way to the nights camp, we passed by a few other falls and either stopped to take pics or hung the camera out the window.
One of the peculiar things on this day was the Rutshellir Caves. The caves are man made and the exterior structure is from the 1917.
Rutshellir Caves
There a little free parking lot and a rock path leads to the cave after you cross over a fence latter. The property owners want you to stay on the stepping stones and ask that you not walk around the site. There is a place to leave a donation at the site. It was a neat little thing to do there and there are other such man made caves around.
From the caves the Skógafoss camp site was just around the corner, which was our end goal for the day. Dez took care of checking us in then we set off to climb the steps to the top of the water fall. There are almost 500 steps.
View From Skógafoss
From the top there is a trail you can take to see some other falls. It is a bit of a hike but we had time, and the hard part was behind us. The Aurora App said the lights were out. We did not see them but as I was putting the blog together, I noticed that the camera picked up the lights in some of the pictures.
We headed back to camp as it was getting dark.
Skógar Campsite
The walk down was easier than the walk up. I am glad we had the time to enjoy the area before bed.
Skógafoss
We showered and fixed dinner before bed. Dez noticed some “Trans Rights” Grafety in the Bathshouse. This was defiantly the best view we had from the van at night. The Campground gets mixed reviews but I enjoyed it.
Tips and Lessons Learned:
You might need your wet gear on this side the island.
Take pics of the sky even when you do not see the lights. They may be there and your camera might do better at seeing them than you can.