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Gullfoss
Iceland's thundering Golden Falls, plunging in two stages into a rugged canyon
Gullfoss, the Golden Falls, is the most famous waterfall in Iceland, a tumbling, two-tiered torrent on the glacial Hvita River in the country's southwest. It is not especially tall, dropping a total of about 32 metres, but it is broad, powerful, and dramatically staged: the river first cascades over a step, then plunges into a deep, narrow crevice that runs at right angles to the flow, so that the water appears to vanish straight into the earth. On sunny days the spray throws up rainbows that give the falls their name.
The Hvita carries meltwater from the Langjokull glacier, and its sediment-laden flow turns golden-brown in the right light. Gullfoss tumbles in two distinct stages, an upper drop of about 11 metres and a lower of about 21, before rushing on through the steep Gullfossgjufur canyon, whose walls reveal layers of ancient lava and sediment. In winter the falls partly freeze into a sculpture of ice and the surrounding plateau lies under snow, while spring meltwater makes the summer flow especially fierce.
Gullfoss sits on Iceland's celebrated Golden Circle tourist route, near the geysers of Haukadalur and the rift valley of Thingvellir. Its survival as a free-flowing falls owes much to a folk heroine, Sigridur Tomasdottir, daughter of the landowner, who in the early twentieth century fiercely opposed plans to dam the river for hydroelectric power and is remembered as one of Iceland's first environmental campaigners. The falls and surrounding land later passed into public ownership and protection.