Selfoss Waterfall

Story & Folklore

This Selfoss — not to be confused with the town — is the first major waterfall you reach on the Dettifoss trail in the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon. Compared to the thundering Dettifoss just 1 kilometre downstream, Selfoss appears almost gentle: a wide, shallow curtain spreading across rocks. But the river canyon here amplifies every sound into theatre, and the sheer amount of glacial water flowing over ancient basalt at this altitude gives it genuine scale. The short walk between Selfoss and Dettifoss along the canyon rim is one of the most dramatic 30 minutes of walking in Iceland, with the canyon walls revealing dark secrets of columnar basalt and ancient carved stone.