Iceland: All the waterfalls...

To finish the Iceland trip theme, let's have a ranked list of the waterfalls we got to see in Iceland.

The list is in the order of my personal preferences.  In some cases, breaking ties was difficult and almost arbitrary.

1. Hraunfossar.  

There are taller waterfalls. There are more powerful waterfalls. There are more impressive waterfalls. But no waterfall we saw in Iceland looked as beautiful to me as the absolutely stunning and highly unusual Hraunfossar waterfalls.

Hraunfossar waterfall: the most beautiful flowing water.

Where other waterfalls are essentially elevation shifts of the riverbed, Hraunfossar is a waterfall where the water rolls into a river from the side - originating, I suspect from the underground of the huge lava field. One picture hardly does justice to the wide variety of ways in which the water rolls down that slope and meets the river, so here are a few close-ups of the most interesting parts.

Hraunfossar: the most complex portion of the waterfalls.

Hraunfossar: the rightmost (most upstream) portion of the falls, with beautiful coloring.

Hraunfossar: somewhat downstream, the more "mundane" part.

2. Glufrabui.  

Probably the second most difficult rank to give (the most difficult is the #3 place) is this one.  At the end of the day, though, Glufrabui wins out simply because of how different it is from everything else. 

Located a few hundred meters away from, and definitely overshadowed by Seljalandsfoss, Glufrabui

might not look like much from the outside: just a thin stream of water falling from the clifftop, and obscured by a large rock in front of it:

From outside, Glufrabui does not look like much.

That is, until you follow the small stream that flows past the rock, and get behind.  There, you find yourself in small space facing gallons of water falling directly on top of you, with an absolutely amazing, and extremely hard to capture light coming through.

Glufrabui: behind the rock.

What really makes it my second favorite waterfall is this sudden change from something totally mundane from afar into this absolutely eerie setting on the "inside".  It just works....

Glufrabui: the path towards the waterfall.

This is one of the few waterfalls we visited, where enterprising individuals can actually walk directly into the waterfall (as one dude did while we were there).

3. Dettifoss.

As I said above, this is the hardest determination to make. There is an almost four-way tie between the four major waterfalls: Dettifoss, Skogafoss, Seljalandsfoss, and Gullfoss, and it is extremely hard to break it.

At the end though, the grittiest of them all, Dettifoss wins it for me.

Dettifoss: the power of falling water.

The tie breaker is the sheer sense of awe I experienced standing mere meters away from the dropoff that is Dettifoss and just looking at that falling water roar past.

It is not a pretty waterfall. The water is rough and tumbling, and it has the color of the lava field around it to  a point where it is almost impossible to tell the river from the banks.

Dettifoss. The sheer power of water.

4. Skogafoss.

The number four spot still has three contenders for it, and Skogafoss wins over Gullfoss and Seljalandfoss in a squeaker.

Skagafoss.

It is a classic waterfall located in an absolutely picturesque setting, with a great views both from the bottom and from the top.

Skagafoss from the top: it IS a long way down.

What is not to like?

5. Gullfoss.

Gullfoss wins this place, because rainbows. Are you kidding me? Just look at those rainbows!

Gullfoss: the waterfall of rainbows

The above is the first photo I took when we got out of the car. It gives some impression of the scale (look at those tiny people next to the top cascade!). It captures a full rainbow (yep, it thins out a bit at the top, but it shines brightly on both sides).

Individual cascades are fun to look at as well.

Gulfoss: the bottom cascade from the side.

 Gullfoss: the top cascade.

6. Seljalandfoss.

In any other country, with any less competition, a waterfall that one can walk around would totally be at the number one spot in the rankings. Because it is really hard to find anything wrong about Seljalandfoss except for the $7 parking fee at the parking lot.

Seljalandfoss.

The ability to actually get behind it makes for some really impressive angles, and adds a layer of respect for the nature for giving us something like this.

While this waterfall looks smaller and less powerful than some of the competition, a close look reveals that this is somewhat deceiving. The water falls in a powerful and loud stream.

Seljalandfoss: on the trail behind the waterfall.

Seljalandfoss: view from behind.

Seljalandfoss: completing the loop.

You will get wet. The camera lens requires constant attention. It is slippery, and colder than elsewhere.  But hard to deny the beauty here.

7. Godafoss. 

This Diamond Circle waterfall is like Niagara Falls in miniature.

Godafoss.

The position of the waterfall makes it very hard to get a good shot (notice how I could not avoid someone's arm when framing - moving would have lost me a significant part of the waterfall itself).
But once you see it all, Godafoss is, indeed, impressive.

8. Selfoss.

Talk about mini-Niagara Falls. This companion to Dettifoss is about 800 meters upstream, and is a beast of different kind - no less powerful, but significantly more refined.

Selfoss.

Getting a better shot than the one above is difficult, as it involves either coming close in order to penetrate that cloud of vapor, or filming from very inconvenient angles.

Selfoss has a rather deep horseshoe shape whose center seems to be persistently clouded.

9. Oxararfoss

Thingvellir's own waterfall. Once again - it is beautiful and does not deserve to be that low, but which waterfall can you bump down for it?

Oxararfoss: on the cliffs of Thingvellir

It is really picturesque, indeed. But not large.

10. Barnafossar.

The companion to Hraunfossar is very different. It is located a couple hundred meters upstream from where Hraunfossar starts, and it is a feisty one.

Barnafossar: the best viewpoint.

The key issue with Barnafossar  is the difficulty of getting a good view of the actual waterfall. The river is narrow and the banks are quite rocky and twisty, and the path does not come too close to the edge. So, there is only one place from which the waterfall can be actually observed.

The rumor has it, this waterfall used to flow right under a natural bridge, but the bridge collapsed, killed children who were standing on it at that moment, and this is how it got its name. The remnants of the natural bridge still can be seen at a close-up.

Barnafossar: the natural bridge.

11. Glanni

Visiting this waterfall was almost an afterthought, and we spent the shortest time of all our waterfall sight seeings there. It is a nice enough landscape, but this waterfall simply lacks the drama of the big ones.

Glanni Waterfall. As calm as waterfalls get in Iceland.

12. Geitafoss

The last named waterfall on the list is just downstream of Godafoss. It is not large, and unfortunately, there is not a good view available - most people probably pass it by and don't even know that it does have a name of its own.

Geitafoss: the best look I could get at it from the side.

And this completes the overview.