Powerhouse Dettifoss

We approached Dettifoss Waterfall from the Eastern side of Iceland & took the older gravel road Route 864 which is mostly passable only in Summer.

Dettifoss Waterfall is situated in Vatnajökull National Park in Northeastern Iceland & is the 2nd most powerful waterfall in Europe after the Rhine Falls in Switzerland.

From the parking area, you have to walk about 1.5km to the actual waterfall.

Dettifoss Waterfall is situated on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum River which flows from Vatnajökull Gacier & collects water from a large area in Northeast Iceland.

We carefully made our way down this rugged & rocky area which is unpaved but has a well-worn trail that you can follow.

The sky was overcast but the sun & clouds interacting created this spectacular halo which caused quite a bit of excitement for the onlookers.

This was as close as I got to Dettifoss which is 100m wide & falls 44m down to the Jökulsárgljúfur Canyon. You can spot some people very close to the water’s edge & some others on the top of the cliff on the western side who would had taken the tarmac Route 862.

Jökulsá á Fjöllum River is the 2nd longest river in Iceland spanning 206km from Vatnajökull Glacier and emptying into Greenland Sea. The water is sediment rich making it look greyish white in colour.

This cataract waterfall is the largest in Iceland in terms of volume discharge; having an average flow of 193 cubic metres per sec. The thunderous force of this body of water kicks up a cloud of mist where rainbows would be seen on a sunny day. Who knows if you might chance upon that Pot of Gold at the Rainbow’s end!

Dettifoss’s dramatic drop into the canyon below is a feature formed by catastrophic glacial flooding resulting from volcanic activity of possibly Bárđarbunga a strato-volcano lying under Vatnajökull, Iceland’s most extensive glacier.