Gullfoss

About this place

The "golden falls" and Iceland's most famous waterfall: the Hvítá river, fed by the Langjökull glacier, drops in two stages set at a right angle to each other — eleven metres then twenty-one — into a narrow canyon seventy metres deep, so the river appears to vanish into a crack in the earth. The spray makes rainbows in the sun, and the golden name with them. Its story matters more than its sight to Icelanders: in the early twentieth century foreign investors wanted a hydroelectric dam here, and Sigríður Tómasdóttir, the landowner's daughter, resisted for twenty years, walked a hundred kilometres to Reykjavik and threatened to throw herself into the falls — the project was dropped. Her stone memorial stands by the upper platform, and she is the country's icon of nature protection. Two platforms: the upper, with the full view, reached by everyone; the lower descending by steps to the water's edge, where the spray soaks you. Parking, visitor centre and restaurant are at the top.