Dettifoss

You feel Dettifoss before you see it. The path from the car park crosses a bare, grey plain of rock and gravel, the kind of landscape that makes you wonder if you took a wrong turn. Then the ground starts to hum. Put your hand on a boulder. It's vibrating.

Dettifoss, in the Jökulsárgljúfur area of Vatnajökull National Park in North Iceland, is often called the most powerful waterfall in Europe. The glacial river Jökulsá á Fjöllum drops about 45 metres over a lip roughly 100 metres wide, and it's not pretty in the way Goðafoss is pretty. The water is grey-brown with glacial silt, the spray rises in a column you can see from far away, and the noise is constant. Ridley Scott filmed the opening of Prometheus here. It fits.

Tours that visit Dettifoss

All in one: Mývatn, Goðafoss, Dettifoss, Selfoss, cave and the Nature baths

9 hours · From Akureyri

4.9(295)

From 39.900 ISK

Lake Mývatn, Goðafoss and powerful Dettifoss

8 hours · From Akureyri

4.9(295)

From 32.700 ISK

Lake Myvatn, Dettifoss,Selfoss, Godafoss, Nature Baths & more

8 hours and 30 minutes · From Akureyri

From 39.900 ISK

Dettifoss Waterfall, Ásbyrgi and Lake Mývatn - Shore Excursion from Húsavík

5 hours and 30 minutes · From Húsavík

3.3(5)

From 24.990 ISK

Grand Lake Mývatn & Powerful Dettifoss (jeep/van)

8 hours · From Akureyri

4.9(295)

From 38.900 ISK

Private All in one: Mývatn, Goðafoss, Dettifoss, Selfoss, cave and the Nature baths

9 hours · From Akureyri

4.9(295)

From 265.000 ISK

Dettifoss east or west side?

You can reach Dettifoss from either bank of the river, and it's a genuine choice rather than a detail. The west side, off Road 862, is paved, has the larger car park and toilets, and is what most tours use. The walk to the viewpoints takes about 15 to 20 minutes each way over rocky ground. From here you look across at the falls with the spray drifting towards you.

The east side, off Road 864, is a gravel road that closes when snow arrives in autumn and opens again in late spring or early summer once the mud has dried. It's slower going, but the view is closer and more head-on, and on a sunny day you often get a rainbow in the spray. If you have a small rental car, check your agreement before taking gravel roads.

Pro tip: don't turn back at Dettifoss. From the west-side car park, a marked loop of about 2.5 km (roughly an hour) takes you past Dettifoss and on upstream to Selfoss, a lower, wider waterfall that pours in from several sides. Far fewer people make the walk, and plenty of us think Selfoss is the better photo.

How to get to Dettifoss

From Lake Mývatn, Dettifoss is under an hour's drive: east on Route 1, then north on Road 862. From Akureyri, allow about two hours each way. Road 862 continues north past Dettifoss to Ásbyrgi canyon, which is how the Diamond Circle loop connects Mývatn, Dettifoss, Ásbyrgi and Húsavík. Budget one to two hours at the falls, more if you walk to Selfoss.

Best time to visit Dettifoss

Summer, roughly June to September, is the easy season: both roads are usually open, the paths are dry and the flow is at its strongest. Road 862 has limited winter service and can be closed or icy for days, and Road 864 is closed through the winter, so a winter visit depends entirely on the weather. Check road.is on the day. If you do reach it in winter, the half-frozen canyon is extraordinary, but the paths can be solid ice.

Stay well back from the edge. There are only light barriers at some viewpoints, the rock is wet and slippery, and the canyon walls are unstable in places. Nobody falls in here and walks away.

Tours that include Dettifoss are below, most of them Diamond Circle and Mývatn day trips from Akureyri, Mývatn or Húsavík, including small-group, private and cruise ship options. Several continue to Selfoss or add the geothermal lagoon at Mývatn at the end of the day.