Outside Iceland, Dettifoss is best known as the big waterfall from the opening scenes of Prometheus. Within Iceland, it’s best known as being the most powerful waterfall in Europe, although that fact is now being prefaced with words like “possibly” and “among”. But it’s quite the sight to behold and you should make the effort to see it if you’re in the north. How to visit Dettifoss? There are two sides and two long separate roads to get there.
Dettifoss is the biggest of three significant waterfalls in the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river, the most fearsome river I’ve encountered in Iceland. It’s not the longest nor the most powerful but for sheer violence, it’s pretty amazing. It comes from the Vatnajökull glacier and it’s opaque grey with debris. It doesn’t flow, it fights, it looks like it’s barely contained within its own canyons and I was quite nervous about being stuck in a broken-down car beside it for several hours.
There are two ways of approaching Dettifoss, which is in the middle of the Highlands. There are two roads which run more or less parallel to the river, one on each side. According to the map left in my hire car, the west road is completely unpaved while the east road is partly paved, so I opted to drive, north to south, down the east road. And that map is wrong! In fact, not only was the tourist road map left in my car wrong, so are my 1:750 000 Marco Polo map and my 1:425 000 Reise map. I can’t speak for today but as of the summer of 2014, the east road is 100% unpaved.
Sometimes the gravel road is half-decent gravel but a lot of it is so rutted that you really don’t want, for example, a pile of tent pegs sitting your back parcel shelf to dry because they jingle and rattle all the way. Even if the pegs are wet and muddy, put them away for that bit of road and get them out and wash and dry them later. This is an important lesson for driving in Iceland. I think if I’d known it was going to be thirty-five miles on rough gravel roads with every other vehicle overtaking me and leaving me, literally, in a cloud of dust, I might have enjoyed it but I wasn’t expecting it and it felt so remote. Here is an example of a random bit of road:
See? Nothing.
The southern end of the west road is paved, from the Ring Road to Dettifoss and a very pleasant drive it is too. For some reason, Google haven’t driven their camera cars up the nice paved road and I didn’t stop to take any photos of it but let me assure you; it’s a smooth sweeping paved road through scenery that does, admittedly, look much the same as it does on the east road but because there’s a real road, it feels much less remote and much less intimidating to drive.
I’ve seen Dettifoss from both banks and I think you get a good view of it from both but you get a wilder view from the east side. From the east, you can see all the way down the canyon, you can see shattered rocks around it and you can see the huge cloud of spray that rises up. If you want to see a waterfall from a post-apocalypse movie up close and personal, go to the east side. It’s also the side where, if you have a death wish, you can go and touch the water. Don’t do this! Tourists can be monumentally stupid and getting anywhere near the edge of waterfall so powerful that you can’t see the bottom for the density of spray is a monumentally stupid thing to do.
It’s not a very high waterfall, only about forty-five minutes, which is lower than both Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss but it’s about one hundred metres wide and it’s turned sideways so as to fit that wide river through the narrow canyon opening.
The west bank, as you may have spotted, is very green. A lot of the spray gets blown over there and there’s a bit of soil, whereas the east bank is all shattered boulders, with just a few sprigs of this and that clinging to the bare rock.
You can go up on the cliffs on the west side and look down on the waterfall or you can go along the top of the canyon where you’re not only level with the top of the waterfall, but it’s also turned towards you. There are more tracks and paths on the west side and a feeling that tourists are encouraged there more than on the east side. There are pretty big car parks on both sides, although that’s something else Google Maps doesn’t show.
You can go on tours to Dettifoss but it’s generally included as part of tour called something like the Diamond Circle, but it’s done as a bit of a whistlestop tour including anything and everything else of interest between Mývatn and Húsavík, so if you want a little longer to enjoy the waters, it’s best to drive it yourself.
incredible plc
Thank you, it’s an incredible waterfall.
incredible plc
Thank you, it’s an incredible waterfall.
Thanks for the great article and photos:
Questions:
1) How long would it take to drive from one side to the other? Or is it not recommended and a waste of time?
2) Is it true that there are usually more tourists at the west side?
Thanks!
Mike 🙂
Hi Mike!
1) If you wanted to see Dettifoss from both sides, that’s quite a trek but definitely doable. The west road is paved at least as far as Dettifoss and it’s only about twenty minutes from the Ring Road, if I remember rightly. The east road is unpaved (or at least, it was in 2014, that might have changed by now) and it takes a bit of a dog-leg rather than going directly north, so it’s a bit longer and it’s a bit slower-going, depending on your confidence driving on gravel. The speed limit is 80km/hr but I could only manage about 35-40km/hr at the time.
It’s about an hour from one side to the other, according to Google Maps, if you drive round via the south, which isn’t too bad, and it’s definitely scenic, if you like desolate rock-strewn semi-apocalyptic dramatic landscapes. I know nothing about the west road further north than Dettifoss but it might be worth doing if you want to stop off at Ásbyrgi on the way.
2) Yes, there are more tourists on the west side, there’s a pretty big car park, and I dimly remember it even has toilets and maybe a food kiosk. You get an amazing view over the waterfall. The east side is quieter but you’re at a lower level and you can pretty much walk up to the edge of the waterfall and put your foot in it, if you have no sense whatsoever and you get a view down the canyon. Definitely worth seeing it from both sides if you don’t mind the extra hour or so driving.
One other thing – because these are fairly remote roads in a fairly wild part of Iceland, I imagine they’re closed due to weather during the winter, so definitely check that before you go.
http://www.road.is/travel-info/road-conditions-and-weather/north-east-iceland/ne_efj1.html
Thanks for the great article and photos:
Questions:
1) How long would it take to drive from one side to the other? Or is it not recommended and a waste of time?
2) Is it true that there are usually more tourists at the west side?
Thanks!
Mike 🙂
Hi Mike!
1) If you wanted to see Dettifoss from both sides, that’s quite a trek but definitely doable. The west road is paved at least as far as Dettifoss and it’s only about twenty minutes from the Ring Road, if I remember rightly. The east road is unpaved (or at least, it was in 2014, that might have changed by now) and it takes a bit of a dog-leg rather than going directly north, so it’s a bit longer and it’s a bit slower-going, depending on your confidence driving on gravel. The speed limit is 80km/hr but I could only manage about 35-40km/hr at the time.
It’s about an hour from one side to the other, according to Google Maps, if you drive round via the south, which isn’t too bad, and it’s definitely scenic, if you like desolate rock-strewn semi-apocalyptic dramatic landscapes. I know nothing about the west road further north than Dettifoss but it might be worth doing if you want to stop off at Ásbyrgi on the way.
2) Yes, there are more tourists on the west side, there’s a pretty big car park, and I dimly remember it even has toilets and maybe a food kiosk. You get an amazing view over the waterfall. The east side is quieter but you’re at a lower level and you can pretty much walk up to the edge of the waterfall and put your foot in it, if you have no sense whatsoever and you get a view down the canyon. Definitely worth seeing it from both sides if you don’t mind the extra hour or so driving.
One other thing – because these are fairly remote roads in a fairly wild part of Iceland, I imagine they’re closed due to weather during the winter, so definitely check that before you go.
http://www.road.is/travel-info/road-conditions-and-weather/north-east-iceland/ne_efj1.html
Thanks for the great info, Juliet! I just updated our website. We provide travelers with comprehensive and accurate ‘When to Go’ insights: https://www.whentobewhere.com/travel-listing/dettifoss Feel free to register (top left) and leave a comment (please provide some info about the months you went). You can put a link to your article here as well in there. It’s a ‘dofollow’ link which increases your google ranking over time. You can delete this comment if you like 🙂
Mike 🙂
Thanks for the great info, Juliet! I just updated our website. We provide travelers with comprehensive and accurate ‘When to Go’ insights: https://www.whentobewhere.com/travel-listing/dettifoss Feel free to register (top left) and leave a comment (please provide some info about the months you went). You can put a link to your article here as well in there. It’s a ‘dofollow’ link which increases your google ranking over time. You can delete this comment if you like 🙂
Mike 🙂