A Tour of Elemental Iceland - Skógar, Skogafoss, Vik, Núpsstaður, Skaftafell - July 2012

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We gradually returned to the land of vegetation as we descended, and now everything around us was colored a bright green from thick mosses and grasses. The morning continued to be gray and wet, but as I mentioned earlier, when it comes to waterfalls, grey wet weather does nothing to diminish their appeal. In fact, it can often enhance them.

courtesy CHatko

courtesy Jinnes

Connell and the Skogá

Narrow constriction

Jenn and the Skogá

courtesy Jinnes

A side-fall

Impressive Gorge

Long way down

The parade of trailside waterfalls continued nearly unabated as we descended towards Skógar. In fact, we began to feel a little blasé about them after a while. It was a feeling I tried to resist, because each of them alone would have been a worthwhile major attraction if placed alone in the middle of a more mundane landscape.

courtesy Jinnes

Skogá river gorge

Breaking up

Return to Grassy fields

The weather improved as we approached Skógar, and by the time we neared the grassy fields above the final drop down to the coastal plain, the sun had started to shine through the low clouds.

A smaller waterfall

Braided trail

Pocket of original forest

A marked increase in the number of day-hikers and a widening and broadening of the trail indicated that we were minutes away from the bottom. To our right, we could see the Skogá river, now flowing flat for a short stretch, disappear over a table-like edge. This, then, had to be the final and largest waterfall along the Skogá - Skógafoss.

An attractive broadening

Above the Skógafoss

Final slope to Skógar

After climbing over a ladder awkwardly-positioned over a livestock fence, we started down the final bit of trail - a sturdy set of steel flights of stairs that zig-zagged down grassy slopes to the coastal plain. Once at the bottom, off came the packs for a celebratory break and a look at the final falls of our hike.

Steel steps

Skógafoss

Roland and Skógafoss

Skógafoss is definitely a beautiful waterfall - one of Iceland's finest. It is big, high, and pure in form - a nearly-perfect wide curtain of water spilling over a table-flat edge. We can probably be forgiven, however, for being slightly dulled to its beauty by the approximately twenty previous fantastic waterfalls we had so far seen this day! We all agreed that this hike would probably go down in our personal record books as the hike with the highest number of observed waterfalls.

Back at the Hiace

The hike down was a bit longer than I had hoped for - it was now 1:30pm, but we still had much of the day remaining. We walked over to our rental van, patiently waiting for us in the nearby parking area, and got ourselves ready for the next phase of our trip.

Below is a video sequence covering our hike from the Baldvinsskali Hut to Skógafoss. Click directly on the image below to start it.