Skógafoss, Iceland: Visiting the South Coast Waterfall

Drive east along Iceland’s south coast and Skógafoss, often written Skogafoss outside Iceland, announces itself well before you reach it: a single white curtain of water, 60 metres high and about 25 metres wide, dropping off a green wall of cliff just north of the Ring Road. It is one of the most photographed waterfalls in the country, and unlike many of Iceland’s great falls it asks almost nothing of you to see it well. You can walk on flat ground to within a few metres of the plunge pool. The harder question is the staircase that climbs the slope beside it, and this guide is frank about that, along with the geology, the legend of a settler’s buried gold, the folk museum at Skógar and how much is realistic at a moderate pace. Skógafoss is one of the last stops on Day 14 of our Iceland cultural and wilderness small group tour, a day that moves west from the black sands of Mýrdalssandur through Vík and Dyrhólaey to the foot of Eyjafjallajökull.

A waterfall on a vanished coastline

Skógafoss falls on the Skógá river, which drains the high ground between two ice caps, Eyjafjallajökull to the west and Mýrdalsjökull to the east. What makes the setting unusual is the cliff itself. According to the Nature Conservation Agency of Iceland (Náttúruverndarstofnun), which took over management of the protected area from the former Environment Agency in 2025, the rock wall the river pours over is a former coastal cliff. The sea once broke at its foot; today the shoreline lies roughly five kilometres to the south, across a flat plain of farmland and glacial outwash. The same line of old sea cliffs runs for a long way along the south coast, and once you know to look for it you will see it again and again from the road, with farms tucked beneath it and smaller falls spilling over its edge.

Skógafoss is the lowest and largest of a whole staircase of waterfalls on the Skógá. Iceland protected it as a natural monument in 1987, and the protected area now covers about 1.65 square kilometres, running from the Ring Road in the south some seven kilometres up the river to Skógaheiði, and taking in the series of falls as far as the footbridge on the route to Fimmvörðuháls. At the time of writing a land ranger works at the site year-round, vegetated ground below the falls is fenced to stop trampling, and flying drones within the monument is prohibited without a permit.

Standing at the foot of the falls

For most visitors the best of Skógafoss is at the bottom. A short, level walk from the car park leads across gravel and river stones towards the falls, and the closer you go the louder and wetter it becomes. Visit South Iceland notes that a vivid rainbow can appear in front of the falls when the sun is right; you will not see one on a grey day, but the curtain of water against the dark, moss-covered rock is striking in any light. Watch the cliffs on either side as well. Fulmars nest there, and the conservation agency notes that these gull-like seabirds, which glide stiff-winged along the rock face, are a protected species in Iceland.

This is also where the waterfall feels most like the edge of something. The cliff rises sheer from the plain, the river runs off across shingle towards the distant sea, and the scale is easy to grasp because you can stand almost beneath it. Expect to get damp within a few metres of the pool, and keep cameras and spectacles covered.

The legend of Þrasi’s gold

Skógar was settled in the age of the sagas, and the falls carry a story from that time. According to folklore recorded on the protected area’s official pages, the settler Þrasi of Skógar hid a chest of gold beneath Skógafoss. Around 1600, the story goes, three men reached the chest and hooked a ring on its side, but when they pulled, the ring broke away and the chest was never seen again. The ring is believed to have ended up on the door of the church at Skógar, and the Skógar Museum now keeps an object it calls Þrasi’s Ring. Whether or not you believe the treasure is still there, it is a pleasing thread that ties the waterfall to the museum nearby.

How hard is the climb to the top of Skógafoss?

The climb is steep and sustained, and it is the one genuinely demanding part of a visit. A staircase runs up the grassy slope on the east side of the falls to a viewing platform at the edge of the cliff, climbing at least the full 60-metre height of the waterfall with no ramp, lift or gentler path as an alternative. Step counts vary between sources: the figure most often quoted is 527, while Perlan, the Reykjavík nature museum, gives around 370. Either way, it is several hundred steps.

Be realistic about the conditions as well as the height. The steps are open metal grating, which means you can see the slope beneath your feet, and some people find that unsettling. Spray, rain and, in colder months, ice can make the treads slippery, and the top of the cliff is exposed to the wind. Handrails help, and there is no harm in stopping to rest on the way up and letting faster walkers pass. Perlan estimates 10 to 15 minutes to climb for a reasonably fit walker; at a steady pace with pauses, allow twice that, and remember the descent is harder on the knees than the ascent. Official plans for the site have long included renewing the stairs and moving them further from the falls, so at the time of writing it is worth checking whether the route has changed before you visit.

Is it worth it? The reward is a view straight down the lip of the falls and out across the coastal plain to the sea, and a first look at the river above. But nothing about Skógafoss is lost by staying at the bottom, which is where the waterfall is at its most impressive. The tour’s day text describes visiting the waterfall rather than climbing it, so treat the staircase as a personal choice on the day and talk it through with your Program Leader.

Above the falls: the Skógá river and Fimmvörðuháls

From the top of the staircase a path follows the Skógá upstream, past a string of smaller falls where the river cuts through narrow gorges of dark rock. The protected area lists several by name, including Hestavaðsfoss, Fosstorfufoss and Skálabrekkufoss. According to the conservation agency, most walkers crossing Fimmvörðuháls, the pass between Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull, start here, and it puts the full crossing from Skógar to Þórsmörk at about 24 kilometres. That is a serious mountain day, not an add-on to a coach stop, and conditions on the pass can change quickly; the agency advises checking with the local ranger or Safetravel before setting out.

The pass has a recent volcanic history of its own. In March 2010 a fissure opened on Fimmvörðuháls, a few weeks before the summit eruption of Eyjafjallajökull that began on 14 April 2010 and closed much of Europe’s airspace. Beyond Þórsmörk, the walking route continues north as the Laugavegur trail towards the rhyolite mountains of Landmannalaugar, which the tour reaches by road the following day.

The Skógar Museum

The other reason to stop at Skógar is the museum, and it deserves more time than most visitors give it. Skógasafn opened on 1 December 1949 in the Skógar regional school, built around the collection of Þórður Tómasson, who gathered objects from the farms of the south coast and remained its curator until he retired in 2013, aged 92. The museum now holds more than 15,000 items, from fishing and farming equipment to handcrafts, displayed in sections that trace how families fed, clothed and sheltered themselves on this narrow strip of land between ice cap and ocean.

Outside, an open-air museum gathers historic buildings moved from across the region. The turf farmhouse has walls of basalt and turf, roofs of turf laid over flat stones, and rooms dating from 1838 to the 1890s, with timber that was mostly driftwood. Beside it stand a wooden house of 1878 from Holt, the first timber house in West Skaftafellssýsla, a schoolhouse of 1901 and a small church consecrated in 1998, its fittings gathered from older churches; its altarpiece of 1768 came from the church at Ásólfsskáli, the farm the tour visits the next morning. A separate building covers transport and technology, including the horses and ferries that once carried travellers across the region’s glacial rivers. At the time of writing the museum is open almost every day of the year, with longer hours in summer; check current times before you go.

Is Skógafoss worth visiting?

Yes: Skógafoss is one of the few major Icelandic waterfalls you can appreciate fully from flat ground, and it sits beside one of the best regional museums in the country. It is busy, because it lies right on the Ring Road, but the falls are broad enough that crowds rarely spoil the view from the riverbank. Combined with the museum, it turns a roadside stop into a rounded picture of the south coast’s nature and people.

How long do you need at Skógafoss?

Allow about 45 minutes for the falls alone, or an hour and a half if you plan to climb the staircase and walk a little way upstream. The museum needs at least an hour and a half more to do it justice, longer if you want to go through the turf houses properly. Visit South Iceland also points out a second, less visited waterfall, Kvernufoss, about 1.5 kilometres east of Skógafoss, for anyone with time to spare.

What should you wear at Skógafoss?

Wear a waterproof jacket and sturdy shoes with good grip, even on a dry day. The spray reaches well beyond the plunge pool, the riverbank is loose gravel and rounded stones, and the staircase can be slick. Weather on this coast changes quickly and wind is common, so carry a warm layer, gloves and a hat for the cliff top. Iceland’s roads and paths can close at short notice for weather or volcanic activity: at the time of writing, check umferdin.is for road conditions and Safetravel for alerts before you go.

Skógafoss on Day 14 of the tour

Day 14 is one of the most varied days of the circuit. It begins at Kirkjubæjarklaustur, the morning after time among the glacier tongues of Skaftafell National Park, and heads west over the black sands of Mýrdalssandur to the small village of Vík; our guide to Vík and its sea stacks covers the village in more depth. The group pauses to view the cliffs at Dyrhólaey, a haven for birdwatchers; at the time of writing, access can be restricted during the nesting season between 1 May and 25 June, so what is open varies from year to year. The group then explores the area close to Eyjafjallajökull, visiting the folk museum and Skógafoss. For the geology and the beaches of this stretch, see our article on Iceland’s black sand beaches and the south coast.

The following morning the group meets farmers at Ásólfsskáli to hear how the 2010 eruption affected their farm life, before heading into the highlands. The tour is rated Level 2, Moderate: participants should be able to manage three to five hours of activity a day, the equivalent of walking up to 8 kilometres on uneven ground, and to climb and descend stairs. An Odyssey Program Leader travels with the group throughout. To see how this day fits into a full circuit of the island, our Iceland Ring Road itinerary follows the route from start to finish.

Skógafoss rewards mature travellers who take it slowly: stand in the spray, look up at the old sea cliff, then walk across to the museum where Þrasi’s ring and the turf houses tell the human side of the same landscape. On the Iceland cultural and wilderness tour, a small group of up to 16 travellers reaches it at the end of a long day on the south coast, with an Odyssey Program Leader on hand and the choice of whether to climb the stairs left to you.