Iceland - Gullfoss

The Hvítá (on Google maps labelled the Ölfusá) river reaches Gullfoss Go to another site.

and tumbles into the rift between the tectonic plates This page is unashamedly repetitive, filled with pictures of water falling and spay rising. The waterfalls at Gullfoss, literally golden falls, Go to another site.

but which are not very golden, lie some 120 kilometres east of Reykjavik. They are just the right size, small enough to get right in there and big enough to be overwhelming in their power and intensity. All I can offer is repetition in the hope it inspires you to go and to see for yourself. The River Hvita.

The plain above the falls where the Hvítá river runs down from the Langjökull glacier Hills near Gullfoss.

The mountains near Gullfoss Rift with river.

Looking down and along the rift into which the river has fallen - people give a scale to the view The first part of the cascade.

A low level viewpoint lets the visitor look up... The second flatter area of the cascade.

...at the cascade as it boils around them The best place for viewing the falls.

Those last two pictures are taken from the worn patch, bottom centre of the picture, where no one was standing at that time: exhilarating or threatening depending on the viewer Rift with the river running down it.

Here the view is from above the valley so the rift can be seen extending away into the distance Low viewpoint looking into the rift.

And here from the low viewpoint looking down into the rift Looking down the rift.

And here, for the rest of the page, are more photos... Rift seen through the spray.

...of the rift and the waters falling into it Rift valley, river and spray.

OK enough of all this water and snow, the next page takes you to another Atlantic island that, 30 years ago, would not have elicited the word peaceful, but now it is a fair description of the rapidly modernising and an astonishingly peaceful place - Belfast.

Gullfoss - the Golden Falls of western Iceland