Godafoss Waterfall

NE-2 640, 640 Grand Island, Iceland

One of the most impressive things I have ever seen. I so happy to have a nice day here after so many rainy ones. Visiting waterfalls is cold, windy, rainy weather is not much fun. But that was not the case here so I really took my time looking at it, taking photos of it, contemplating it. Absolutely wonderful place, one that I would love to see again and again.

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The waterfall of the gods

One of the most impressive things I have ever seen. I so happy to have a nice day here after so many rainy ones. Visiting waterfalls is cold, windy, rainy weather is not much fun. But that was not the case here so I really took my time looking at it, taking photos of it, contemplating it. Absolutely wonderful place, one that I would love to see again and again.

Goðafoss Waterfall

Goðafoss is a wide 12m tall waterfall on the Skjálfandafljót River. We were able to see this waterfall from both sides of its banks. The east bank seemed to yield some short walks leading to full contextual views from the top as well as frontal views of the falls from near the level of the river. On the west bank, we were right up against the brink of the falls, but I don’t think its views were as satisfying as on the east side. Strangely, it was the west bank that seemed to have more of the tourist traffic and tour buses. As a matter of fact, we had the east side to ourselves! From what we were told, this curling horseshoe-shaped waterfall had a fairly key role in Icelandic history. Apparently back in the year 1000, the lawspeaker at the time Þorgeirr Ljósvetningagoði had the unenviable task of choosing the official religion of Iceland. Perhaps under the pressure of Christianity’s convert or die methods, Þorgeirr chucked his icons of Norse deities into the falls but secretly maintained allegiance to the Norse deities. Near the base of Goðafoss, since the falls is very close to the Ring Road, it didn’t surprise us that this was a very popular spot both with self-drivers and tours. But even still, we didn’t feel like the tourist crush was overwhelming.

Godafoss in northeastern Iceland

My husband and I traveled around the periphery of Iceland (on Ring Road) over a 9-day trip this summer. We encountered some magnificent falls that had names and several others that were probably anonymous...this one goes by the name Godafoss (waterfall of Gods) and is a pretty popular hiking spot in north east Iceland, not very far from Lake Myvatn. Since days in summer are endless, we were hiking till late hours, almost every day. This was shot around midnight.

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