Faxi Waterfall
Faxi Waterfall is a waterfall in Golden Circle & Nearby, Iceland — about 104 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
The Faxi waterfall is located on the Golden Circle, a popular tourist trail east of Reykjavik. The waterfall is located on the Tungufljót river.
As a photography stop, Faxi Waterfall is a waterfall in Golden Circle & Nearby, roughly 104 km from Reykjavik, reached by a drive to the trailhead and a short walk in (footwear and weather check). Plan the shoot during the summer window, when light, road status, and crowd levels line up for photography. The downloadable Waterfall map pins exact GPS coordinates, parking, and nearby waypoints so you can fold it into a wider route instead of hunting for the pull-off on arrival.
Faxi Waterfall sits inside the waterfall photography map for Iceland, alongside the other spots worth routing a day around.
Notes on this location
Compiled from published sources rather than a visit. Sources are listed below.
About 7 m high and 91 m wide on the Tungufljót — a ratio of roughly thirteen to one, which makes it the widest-for-its-height fall in this catalog. It carries a salmon ladder, and sits on the Golden Circle between Geysir and Gullfoss.
- Size
- About 7 m high, 91 m wide
- River
- The Tungufljót, a tributary of the Hvítá
- Salmon
- A fish ladder was built to help salmon migrate upstream and preserve the river’s population
- On the route
- About 120 km east of Reykjavík — 12 km from Geysir, 21 km from Gullfoss, 17 km from Skálholt
- Arriving
- A gravel track to a small car park and picnic area; an observation platform
Thirteen times wider than it is tall means a panoramic subject, not a plunge — a vertical frame has nothing to fill and a standard wide angle will leave most of the width as empty bank. This is the one fall in the catalog that genuinely wants a stitched or cropped-wide treatment. Twelve kilometres from Geysir also makes it the obvious stop that most Golden Circle traffic drives past.
SourcesFaxi — Wikipedia
Light & aurora at this spot
Calculated from this location’s coordinates (64.226, -20.338). Iceland stays on UTC year-round, so these are local times.
- Summer
- June: sun up 02:49–23:55 (21.1 h). Evening golden hour 21:58–23:55, light coming from the NNW.
- Winter
- December: only 4.2 h of daylight (11:11–15:22), but the sun never climbs above 2.5° — the entire day is golden hour. Sunrise bears SSE, sunset SSW.
- Aurora
- Aurora-grade darkness Sep–Mar, peaking at 12.9 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
Faxi Waterfall is a waterfall in Golden Circle & Nearby, Iceland, approximately 104 km from Reykjavik. Exact GPS coordinates are included in the downloadable Waterfall map.
The recommended season for Faxi Waterfall 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.
Faxi Waterfall is best visited during Summer. Outside that window, expect limited access, weather closures, or significantly different photographic conditions.