Iceland – Skógafoss

Part of a series of posts about my travel in Iceland, including visits to eleven waterfalls.

Skógafoss is one of the tallest waterfalls I visited – free-falling more than 60m from the top of the cliff into a spray-filled bowl below.  Read on…

It is extremely popular, just off the Ring Road, with the largest carpark of all, plus a hotel, campground, and restaurant.  When I arrived mid-afternoon, therefore, the place was thickly crowded with tourists.  Most of them hiked up the steep hillside to a viewing platform near the top, so they could look down on the falls.   A few, like me, followed the water upstream toward the base of the falls.  I donned my well-worn and still-damp waterfall kit and waded across the shallow stream to a gravel bar, where I could shoot directly upstream and see the entirety of the falls.  This angle allowed me some great shots, avoided much of the mist, and reduced the number of people who may wander into my shot.

Later in the day, I returned here to sit on the hotel deck, with a view of the waterfall, for a burger and a beer.  A wonderful way to spend a couple of hours while I waited for sunset – which I wanted to catch at nearby Seljalandsfoss.

Check out the gallery for more photos; watching one of the 15s videos may give you a better sense of the power of this incredible waterfall.

Reference: I learned about this place from a guidebook, Photographing Iceland, by Einar Guðmann and Gyða Henningsdóttir; translated by Abigail Charlotte Cooper. JTV útgáfa 2019.