Day 13: Dettifoss & Selfoss

Getting to Dettifoss

From our stay at Möðrudalur to Dettifoss (West Side) or Dettifoss (East Side) would take about the same amount of time. But to get from  Dettifoss West Side to the East Side or the other way round would required 45 minutes to an hour as they were on opposite sides of the valley.

We picked to visit the west side first as we understood that the road to the east side was less “friendly” to car.

Dettiffoss west side parking was a large carpark and it was free of charge. From the carpark we could not see the falls at all. There was a path leading to the falls, it was a cold walk as the temperature had dropped to 3 °C.

Dettifoss was a gigantic falls and “super” impressive. There was a path that led near to the canyon wall where visitors could get a closer look of the falls.

The falls was 100 metres (330 ft) wide and had a drop of 44 metres (144 ft) down into the canyon. This canyon was in the northern part of the greater Vatnajökull National Park. It was amazing to walk up to the viewing deck and experience the deafening thurdering sound of the falling water and the “blanketing” mist all around us.

There was another viewpoint on a higher elevation which gave a good overall view of the falls.

There were two other falls near to Dettifoss, they were Selfoss and Hafragisfoss. From Dettifoss we walked further south for about a km to Selfoss.

Selfoss was a wide fall of 100metres. It was not very high and its height was 11 metre. Though it was not as huge and gigantic as Dettifoss, it was a beautiful falls. At Detiffoss one saw a huge “mass of water’ falling over the canyon. At Selfoss the “in and out” contour off the cliff walls created a  series of  “independent falls”  flowing into the canyon.

After Selfoss we left without walking to Hafragilsfoss. We were cold and tired and totally forgot about Hafraglisfoss!

Our stay near Dettifoss

We booked an accommodation as near to Dettifoss as possible. We were not sure that after we visited the west side of Dettifoss would we need to visit the east side too. If the west side view of Dettifoss was disappointing we would have to go to view the falls from the east side. There was no bridge from the east to the west side, looping (driving) from west side to east side needed about 45 minutes to one hour. We could visit the east side on the same day we visited the west side or visit it the next day, either way an accommodation near to the falls would be most convenient.

Eventually we did not have to visit the east side of Dettifoss as the view from the west side was awesome enough. Dettifoss was one super gigantic falls, the falls would look the same “big” whether viewed  from the west side or east side. We supposed their different would be their “sunrise” or “sunset” views which we were not in our plan.

There was a couple of accommodation “near” to Dettifoss. We booked Bjarnastadir Guesthouse as it was the only one with available rooms.

The cost for a double room with ensuite toilet was €91 a night with no breakfast. The double room was very tight, the bathroom had an unpleasant smell and the bed was too small for two persons!

The room was not comfortable at all, the only good thing it had was the window view into the green vastness where many horses roamed.

For our entire stay at Bjarnastadir Guesthouse, our host/staff was not around. There was no other guests too. We had to let ourselves into the guesthouse and figure our way about. The highlight of the guesthouse was its huge kitchen cum dining room and we were able to cooked our meals easily.

Accommodation near Dettifoss