Our second full day on the south coast of Iceland was spent visiting waterfalls, an amazing viewpoint, and a glacier. First up, the waterfalls. We headed west from the Umi hotel to a very crowded Seljalandsfoss Waterfall. There were numerous busses at the site, so I knew that was a bad sign.
You can actually walk behind the waterfall, as seen in the above photo, but the line waiting to get to the backside was filled with people standing in the mist, so we opted out of that. The video of waterfalls is always better than a still shot.
Here is a shot from a different angle. This is just an 1 hour 45 minutes from Reykjavik, so if you want to visit do so early or late to avoid the crowds. If you can do late on a sunny day you will get much better photos than we did…as the waterfall faces west.
If you take a short walk from this waterfall, maybe 300 meters, you come across a very unique waterfall called Gljufrabui (why no “foss” on the end? I have no idea).
If you really want to see it you are going to get wet, so bring a raincoat! We left ours in the car…doh! The waterfall is tucked into a little box canyon, and it can get quite crowded in there!
We saw this guy hanging out along the trail. The birds seem pretty damn tame here.
As we were leaving this location the traffic stopped, and we suddenly saw all these horses moving along the road. Not sure what was happening, but I had to take a video!
From there we headed east, past our hotel, to Skogafoss Waterfall, another very popular place for the busses, since this is only a half hour from Seljalandsfoss (I know, these names are tiring…try spending weeks here!) I found this to be a much more impressive waterfall though!
Again, video does it best!
A shot with fewer people….since you had to get wet to get the photo.
This time we pulled the right jackets out of the car!
There is a hike to a viewpoint at the top of the waterfall. The reward was the beautiful double rainbow. After we walked back down there was a little girl that was complaining about having to hike up the trail, but when I told her there was a double rainbow at the top she practically started running up! You’re welcome parents, I accept Venmo.
We then drove further east to the Dyrholaey Viewpoint, near the town of Vik. The road climbs up this rock cutting a beach in two, and excellent views can be had from both sides. The rock in the background looks like Godzilla starting to rise from the deep…but then I’ve been drinking…so there’s that.
On the other side of the viewpoint we came upon these two Puffins, right at the side of the trail, like they were posing. Puffin Kiss!
Puffin video!
After we walked away from the two Puffins, I was amazed at the paparazzi crowd that had gathered behind us!
This is such an incredible spot in the first place, but including the adorable Puffins just makes it that much better!
The view down the black sand beach is mesmerizing. I could have sat here for an hour, but it was windy….and cold…and I didn’t have beer.
The beach below is called Reynisfjara Beach, and is an iconic spot along the south coast, but we just didn’t have time to visit it. It was pretty damn cold for a beach visit regardless.
Next up was Solheimajokull Glacier, a short hike from the trailhead to visit the tongue of the glacier. Again, we are close to Reykjavik, so this is a crowded spot. The first thing you see are icebergs in the lake at the end of the glacier.
The glacier itself. I’ve gotta say, as glaciers go, this one is pretty ugly. We heard that the black is from volcanic dirt blowing onto the glacier from the common high winds.
Our last stop of the day was another waterfall, this time Kvernufoss, within a half mile of Skogafoss. This one is tucked away into a canyon, so the foot traffic is minimal.
The video!
You can walk behind this waterfall, and not get all that wet…amazingly. It provides for excellent perspectives. From the appearance we could swear we were in Hawaii!
Video!
It was a full day, and we head east tomorrow to see more amazing stuff, hopefully with fewer busses!! As always, thanks for reading!
Ok, I am a sucker for the Puffin kiss💋