Everyone knows Skógafoss. Everyone photographs Seljalandsfoss. Everyone watches Gullfoss from the viewing platform. But Iceland has hundreds of waterfalls that never appear on postcards — hidden in gorges, tucked behind cliffs, accessible only to those who pull over, lace up their boots, and walk. These ten are worth every step.
The Waterfall You Have to Earn
Iceland has more waterfalls per square kilometre than almost any country on earth. The combination of glacier meltwater, heavy precipitation, and a landscape of dramatic cliffs and escarpments means that falling water is simply part of the visual grammar of the country — expected, constant, and in many places entirely unremarkable.
The famous ones are famous for a reason. Skógafoss is genuinely spectacular. Dettifoss genuinely overwhelming. Seljalandsfoss genuinely special. But they are also genuinely crowded — particularly in summer, when the car parks fill before nine in the morning and the viewing platforms hold dozens of people at a time.
The hidden ones offer something different. Not necessarily more dramatic — though some of them are — but more intimate. More yours. The feeling of having walked to something rather than driven to it. The particular quality of a waterfall experienced in near-silence, with no one else in frame, on a trail that most people in the car park did not know existed.
At Ice Paradise Tours, finding these places is one of the things we love most about our work. Here are ten waterfalls worth leaving the road for.
01 · Gljúfrabúi — The Hidden Neighbour of Seljalandsfoss
Region: South Coast · Walk: 5 minutes · Difficulty: Easy (wet feet likely)
Gljúfrabúi is Iceland’s most undervisited famous waterfall — hidden 200 metres from Seljalandsfoss, one of the country’s most photographed sights, yet missed by the majority of visitors who stand at the famous cascade without realising what is around the corner.
The name means Canyon Dweller, and the name is the key. The waterfall drops 40 metres inside a narrow gorge — a canyon so tight that the cliff walls nearly touch above the cascade. To see it properly, you must wade into the gorge through a shallow stream, squeeze through the crack in the rock face, and emerge into a cathedral-like chamber where the waterfall crashes down from the sky above in a column of white water and spray.
It is one of the most extraordinary small spaces in Iceland. The light inside is filtered and green. The sound is enormous. The spray soaks everything immediately. Bring waterproof trousers and shoes you do not mind getting wet — and go, because the 98% of visitors who miss this are missing something genuinely special.
02 · Gjáin — The Waterfall in the Fairy Tale Valley
Region: South Iceland, Þjórsárdalur Valley · Walk: 20 minutes · Difficulty: Easy
If Iceland has a secret garden, Gjáin is it. Tucked into the Þjórsárdalur valley in the shadow of the Hekla volcano, this hidden oasis is so improbably lush and so perfectly composed that visitors routinely stop in the entrance and say nothing for a full minute.
The valley is a bowl of deep green moss, wildflowers, and twisted lava rock through which a river threads between pools of crystalline turquoise water, dropping over several small cascades into basins that look deliberately placed. In every direction, the composition is perfect. The light falls differently here than it does in the open landscape — warmer, more contained, somehow both wilder and more intimate.
Gjáin sits near the Stöng Viking farm ruins and is best combined with a visit to the Þjóðveldisbær Viking longhouse reconstruction nearby. The walk from the car park is short and the terrain is easy. Few places in Iceland deliver this level of visual impact for this little physical effort.
03 · Hraunfossar — Waterfalls Born From Lava
Region: West Iceland, near Húsafell · Walk: 10 minutes · Difficulty: Easy
Hraunfossar is unlike any other waterfall in Iceland. There is no single dramatic drop, no canyon, no thundering plunge pool. Instead, spring water seeps out from beneath an 800-year-old lava field along a 900-metre stretch of riverbank in hundreds of individual rivulets — a curtain of crystal-clear water emerging directly from the rock itself, flowing over blue-grey basalt into the Hvítá river below.
The name means Lava Falls, and watching it, you understand why the Icelanders gave it that name rather than something more dramatic. This is water behaving in a way that does not look natural — too steady, too clear, too evenly distributed along its entire length. The Hallmundarhraun lava field above has been filtering this water for centuries, and what emerges is as clean and cold as anything in Iceland.
Immediately adjacent is Barnafoss — the Children’s Falls — a turbulent, powerful gorge waterfall that forms a striking contrast with the gentleness of Hraunfossar a hundred metres away. Both are accessible on the same short walk. Together they are one of the most rewarding and most undervisited waterfall experiences in Iceland.
04 · Aldeyjarfoss — The Black and White Waterfall
Region: North Iceland, Highland Interior · Walk: 5 minutes · Difficulty: Easy (road requires 4WD)
Aldeyjarfoss is one of Iceland’s most dramatically composed waterfalls — and one of its least visited, because reaching it requires a 4WD and a drive along an unpaved highland track that most tourists on the Ring Road never attempt.
The Skjálfandafljót river — the same river that feeds Goðafoss downstream — drops 20 metres into a circular plunge pool ringed by perfectly formed basalt columns. The geometry is extraordinary: the columns stand in precise, symmetrical rows on both sides of the cascade, black against the white water, like a natural architectural feature designed by someone with an obsessive eye for pattern. The contrast between the dark basalt and the white foam is the kind of image that photographers travel specifically to Iceland to find.
The approach road — Route F26 from the south or Route 842 from the north — requires a proper 4WD with good ground clearance. Do not attempt it in a standard rental car. But for those with the right vehicle, Aldeyjarfoss rewards the effort entirely.
05 · Kolugljúfur and Kolufossar — The Canyon Nobody Visits
Region: North-West Iceland, Víðidalur Valley · Walk: 10 minutes · Difficulty: Easy
Kolugljúfur is a canyon that most Ring Road drivers pass within 30 kilometres of and never visit. This is their loss. The Víðidalsá river has cut a dramatic gorge through the North-West Iceland landscape — narrow, deep, and lined with columnar basalt that has fractured into angular patterns of extraordinary regularity. Along its length, the Kolufossar waterfalls drop in a series of cascades into the dark canyon below.
Icelandic folklore says the canyon was home to a giantess named Kola, who would wade into the river to catch salmon with her bare hands. Standing at the canyon rim looking down at the falls and the dark water below, the story seems not unreasonable. This is a landscape that invites mythology.
The canyon is easy to reach by a short walk from the parking area off Route 1 near Víðimýri. It is almost always empty of other visitors. The combination of canyon, basalt, folklore, and waterfall in a single accessible location makes it one of North-West Iceland’s most underrated natural attractions.
06 · Dynjandi — The Jewel of the Westfjords
Region: Westfjords · Walk: 20 minutes uphill · Difficulty: Moderate
Dynjandi is the Westfjords’ greatest natural landmark and one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Iceland — but it sits deep in one of the country’s most remote regions, and most visitors to Iceland never reach it. For those who do, it is one of the defining moments of any Iceland trip.
The main cascade — Fjallfoss — drops 100 metres in a fan shape that widens from 30 metres at the top to 60 metres at the base, creating a curtain of water that looks like a bridal veil thrown over a cliff face. Below it, six smaller waterfalls — each with its own name — step down the hillside to the fjord. The walk from the car park to the top of the full cascade takes about 20 minutes on a well-maintained path, passing each of the smaller falls in sequence.
Dynjandi means Thundering One. The sound from the base of the main fall, where the spray catches the wind coming off the fjord, is formidable. The view from the top — over the cascade, over the smaller falls below, over the fjord and the mountains beyond — is one of the finest in Iceland. The Westfjords require effort to reach. Dynjandi justifies it entirely.
07 · Hengifoss — The Layered Canyon Waterfall
Region: East Iceland, near Egilsstaðir · Walk: 2.5 km each way, 45 minutes · Difficulty: Moderate
At 128 metres, Hengifoss is one of the tallest waterfalls in Iceland. But height alone does not explain why the walk to it is one of the finest in East Iceland. The canyon walls on both sides of the trail are layered in alternating bands of red clay and dark basalt — millions of years of geological history written in horizontal stripes on the cliff face, each red layer marking an ancient soil that formed between volcanic eruptions and was subsequently buried under new lava.
Halfway along the trail, the smaller Litlanesfoss waterfall drops through a perfect circle of basalt columns — one of Iceland’s finest examples of columnar jointing, completely surrounding the cascade like a natural colonnade. Most walkers spend as long here as they do at Hengifoss itself.
The trailhead is a short drive from Egilsstaðir, making Hengifoss one of the most convenient major waterfall hikes in East Iceland. The path is well-maintained but gains significant elevation — wear proper hiking footwear and take water. The combined experience of the geology trail, Litlanesfoss, and the final view of Hengifoss dropping into the canyon below is one of the most complete waterfall experiences Iceland offers.
08 · Ófærufoss — The Arch That Disappeared
Region: Highland Interior, Eldgjá Canyon · Walk: 3 km each way, 1 hour · Difficulty: Moderate (4WD required for access)
Ófærufoss sits at the end of a walk through Eldgjá — one of the world’s largest volcanic canyons, formed in a massive eruption in 934 AD that sent lava across a significant portion of Iceland and ash across most of Europe. The canyon itself is extraordinary — 270 metres deep, 600 metres wide, and 8.5 kilometres long, its walls streaked with every shade of volcanic colour.
For decades, Ófærufoss was famous for the natural stone arch that spanned its gorge — one of Iceland’s most striking geological features. In 1993, the arch collapsed. What remains is still dramatic: a two-tiered cascade dropping into a deep, basalt-walled gorge, surrounded by the volcanic landscape of the Eldgjá canyon. The absence of the arch is itself part of the story — a reminder that Iceland’s geological features are not permanent, and that the landscape is still being made.
Access requires a 4WD vehicle and is only possible in summer when the F-roads are open. The drive through the highland interior to Eldgjá is as dramatic as the destination. Allow a full day for the round trip from the South Coast.
09 · Stuðlagil Canyon — Iceland’s Most Dramatic New Discovery
Region: East Iceland, Jökuldalur Valley · Walk: 3 to 6 km depending on route · Difficulty: Moderate
Stuðlagil is Iceland’s newest major natural attraction — in the sense that it only became accessible and widely known after 2018, when the water level in the Jökla river was lowered by a nearby hydroelectric project and revealed a canyon of extraordinary basalt columns that had previously been submerged.
What emerged is one of the most visually stunning geological formations in Iceland: columns of grey and black basalt rising 30 to 40 metres on both sides of a river of startling turquoise-blue — the colour produced by glacial meltwater carrying suspended glacial flour. The canyon runs for several kilometres and can be viewed from the rim above or, for those willing to wade, from within the river itself on the canyon floor.
Stuðlagil is still relatively unknown outside Iceland and the walk to the best viewpoints requires either a longer hike from the east bank or a shorter but more exposed approach from the west. Neither is particularly difficult, but both require proper footwear and a willingness to navigate without the infrastructure of a fully developed tourist site. That is precisely what makes it so good.
10 · Kirkjufellsfoss — The Most Photographed Waterfall in North Iceland
Region: Snæfellsnes Peninsula · Walk: 5 minutes · Difficulty: Easy
Kirkjufellsfoss is arguably Iceland’s most photographed waterfall — not because it is the largest or most powerful, but because of what stands behind it. Kirkjufell mountain, rising 463 metres in a near-perfect pyramid shape from the shore of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, frames the double cascade of Kirkjufellsfoss in a composition so perfectly proportioned that it has appeared in travel publications, photography portfolios, and the filming locations of Game of Thrones more times than any other single waterfall view in Iceland.
The waterfall itself — a pair of small cascades tumbling over mossy rocks into a pool, connected by a wooden footbridge — would not merit particular attention on its own. Combined with the mountain, it becomes something else: a composition that encapsulates why Iceland looks the way it does. Sky, mountain, waterfall, water. Each element intensifying the others.
The best photographs are taken in the morning before the car park fills, or in the evening when the low-angle light falls directly on the mountain face. In winter, snow on Kirkjufell and ice on the falls creates an entirely different image. And in the rare moments when the Northern Lights appear above — which they do, on clear winter nights — it becomes one of the most extraordinary photographic opportunities in Iceland.
Practical Tips for Waterfall Hunting in Iceland
Wear waterproof everything: Iceland’s waterfalls produce spray that travels surprisingly far. Waterproof jacket, waterproof trousers, and waterproof footwear are essential for any close-up visit — particularly at Gljúfrabúi, Dettifoss, and Dynjandi. Waterproof your camera too.
Go early or go late: The most famous waterfalls on the South Coast are busiest between 10 AM and 4 PM. Arriving before 9 AM or after 5 PM gives you significantly better chances of solitude and better light for photography. In summer, the midnight sun means late evening visits are entirely practical.
Never cross safety barriers: Waterfalls in Iceland have claimed lives. The ground near the edge is often wet, mossy, and unstable. Barriers exist because the edge is dangerous, not as a suggestion. The same applies to river banks near powerful cascades — the current is stronger than it looks.
Check F-road conditions: Several waterfalls on this list — Aldeyjarfoss and Ófærufoss in particular — require a 4WD and are only accessible when F-roads are open, typically June to September. Check road.is before planning any highland waterfall visit.
Combine with nearby attractions: Iceland’s waterfalls rarely exist in isolation. Hraunfossar sits next to Barnafoss and near the Langjökull glacier. Hengifoss shares a canyon with Litlanesfoss. Gjáin sits near Viking ruins. Planning combined visits maximises every hour you spend exploring.
The lesser-known, the better the photograph: The most visited waterfalls are the hardest to photograph without other people in frame. The less visited a waterfall, the more completely it belongs to you for the duration of your visit. Build your itinerary around this reality.
Quick Reference — The 10 Falls at a Glance
Gljúfrabúi (South Coast) — Walk: 5 mins — Wade into a gorge — bring waterproofs
Gjáin (South Iceland, Þjórsárdalur) — Walk: 20 mins — Iceland’s secret garden — easy, magical
Hraunfossar (West Iceland) — Walk: 10 mins — Water emerging from lava — unique in the world
Aldeyjarfoss (North Iceland Highland) — Walk: 5 mins — Basalt columns — 4WD required
Kolugljúfur (North-West Iceland) — Walk: 10 mins — Canyon of legend — almost always empty
Dynjandi (Westfjords) — Walk: 20 mins uphill — 100-metre fan cascade — worth the remote drive
Hengifoss (East Iceland) — Walk: 45 mins each way — Tallest walk-to waterfall — with geological bonus of Litlanesfoss
Ófærufoss (Highland Interior) — Walk: 1 hour each way — Volcanic canyon — 4WD, summer only
Stuðlagil Canyon (East Iceland) — Walk: 30-60 mins — Turquoise water, basalt columns — still undiscovered
Kirkjufellsfoss (Snæfellsnes Peninsula) — Walk: 5 mins — Mountain backdrop — most photogenic composition in Iceland
Pull Over. Lace Up. Walk.
The most memorable waterfall you will encounter in Iceland will probably not be the one on the front of the tourist brochure. It will be the one you found by pulling over when something caught your eye, following a faint path through the moss, and arriving at a cascade that had no car park, no viewing platform, and no one else standing in front of it.
Iceland has hundreds of waterfalls with no names on any map. Most are beautiful. Many are extraordinary. All of them are yours if you are willing to leave the road.
The falls are out there. Pull over. Lace up. Walk.