Dettifoss
Dettifoss is a waterfall in North Iceland, Iceland — about 520 km from Reykjavik and reached by a drive to the trailhead and a short walk in (footwear and weather check). Shoot it during the summer window, when light, road status, and crowd levels line up for photography, then use the GPS coordinates, parking notes, and nearby waypoints below to fold this stop into a longer photography route.
Overview
Dettifoss is a waterfall in Vatnajökull National Park in Northeast Iceland, and is reputed to be the second most powerful waterfall in Europe after the Rhine Falls.
Planning more than one stop? Open the Iceland waterfalls GPS map to put Dettifoss on the same offline layer as everything nearby.
Notes on this location
Compiled from published sources rather than a visit. Sources are listed below.
A 44 m drop, 100 m wide, on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum — a glacial river off Vatnajökull carrying about 193 m³/s. The two banks are reached by different roads, and only one of them is a year-round proposition.
- Size
- 44 m high, 100 m wide
- River
- Jökulsá á Fjöllum, fed from the Vatnajökull glacier
- Discharge
- About 193 m³/s on average
- West bank
- Route 862, tarmac, open year-round; maintained path and a view platform
- East bank
- Route 864, older gravel, usually passable in summer only
- Water
- Sediment-rich glacial runoff, greyish-white rather than clear
Which bank you choose is a road decision before it is a compositional one: the east side is a summer-only gravel road, so an autumn or winter plan effectively means the west platform. The suspended glacial sediment is also why the water renders grey-white rather than blue — exposure for the rock and the fall will not behave like a clear-water river.
SourcesDettifoss — Wikipedia
Light & aurora at this spot
Calculated from this location’s coordinates (65.816, -16.388). Iceland stays on UTC year-round, so these are local times.
- Summer
- 23.6 h of daylight in June and the sun barely sets, dipping only 0.9° below the horizon — effectively continuous golden light through the small hours.
- Winter
- December: only 3.1 h of daylight (11:28–14:33), but the sun never climbs above 0.9° — the entire day is golden hour. Sunrise bears SSE, sunset SSW.
- Aurora
- Aurora-grade darkness Sep–Mar, peaking at 13 h a night in December. Not possible Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug — the sky never gets dark enough.
Bar height is daylight hours. Months marked • have enough astronomical darkness for aurora; the rest do not.
Questions & answers
Dettifoss is a waterfall in North Iceland, Iceland, approximately 520 km from Reykjavik. Exact GPS coordinates are included in the downloadable Waterfall map.
The recommended season for Dettifoss is Summer. For light, plan around blue hour and the first hour after sunrise; Iceland's long shoulder-season twilight extends usable conditions on either side.
Drive/Hike access. Bring weather-appropriate footwear and check conditions before setting out. The downloadable GPS map puts the waypoint on your phone; your own app routes you to it from wherever you are.
Dettifoss is best visited during Summer. Outside that window, expect limited access, weather closures, or significantly different photographic conditions.