Travelogue

Skogafoss double rainbowContinuing along the Ring Road along the Southern part of Iceland, in less than a half hour we came to another beautiful waterfall called Skogafoss, named after the river that feeds it. By now the crowds from Reykjavik had caught up to us.

What we would gradually learn during our travels was that each of the waterfalls we visited was unique and distinct from the others - definitely not a “seen one, seen them all” situation.

Skogafoss is one of the biggest waterfalls in Iceland, with a vertical drop of 60 meters and a width of 25 meters and although we couldn’t walk behind it, like we did at Seljalandsfoss, we could go right up to it and get equally drenched.

Lolo and her rainbowThe waterfall kicks off so much spray that when it’s sunny there is almost always a beautiful rainbow, sometimes even a double one. Today, conditions were just right for a double, and I was lucky enough to have one encircle me.

As with most things in Iceland, there is a legend about this waterfall. The story goes that around the year 900, a Viking Settler named Þrasi Þórólfsson hid a chest filled with gold and treasures behind Skogafoss and said that the first man who went behind the falls would find great treasures.

The path to the topIt was said that in olden times one could see one side of the chest protruding from the waterfall. Many tried to retrieve it but the falls were just too powerful.

One man almost succeeded by tying a rope to the handle of the chest and pulling. He was only able to obtain the ring of the chest, which is said to now hang from the church door in the small village of Skógar.

As far I know, no one has successfully gone behind the falls, so it must still be there.

Cascades above SkogafossNo treasure hunting for us today. Instead we hiked up the 527 steps of the steep path to the right of the waterfalls where we looked down on Skogafoss and its rainbow.

The top of the falls is the turning around point for most of the crowd, but we continued on for about a mile along a path that traced the Skoga River, passing several other smaller falls and cascades along the way.

The trail continued on for many more miles, passing as many as 30 small waterfalls, but we had lots of things to see and do today, so we turned around and headed back from whence we came.