Trip to Iceland Post #2: Hraunfossar

One of the very few negatives when visiting Iceland is that direct flights from the U.S. to Iceland are overnight flights. The flights are relatively short, at about 6 hrs from Chicago to Reykjavik, but I feel I'm forced to try to sleep to get some rest, but airplane sleep is about the worst kind of sleep you can get. Thus I arrived in Iceland feeling exhausted. On top of that, you arrive in Iceland at 6-7 AM and can't check into your place until the mid-afternoon at earliest. Thus there are several hours before rest is even an option.

On our trip to Iceland in June 2018, we stayed for 4 nights up on the north side of Iceland and then 4 nights on the south side of Iceland. We drove up north first, so I loaded myself with expensive Icelandic coffee to stay awake for the 3.5 hr drive to the north. Along the way we stopped at one waterfall not too far off the main road (Highway 1). It's about all we could handle before falling to exhaustion! The waterfall we visited was Hraunfossar.

Not the tallest nor the most powerful waterfall in Iceland, but a beautiful waterfall nonetheless and one I highly recommend you visit. There are nice walking paths that give you different views of the falls. I find waterfalls amazing. They are simple in structure, with water simply falling some height, but they are beautiful and powerful at the same time. Plus you can often see how water has carved out paths in the rock over millions of years! This particular waterfall has a lesser crowd than some of the more famous waterfalls in Iceland which can have hundreds, if not a thousand or more people viewing the falls at the same time. I kid you not! 

To conclude, if you're heading to northern Iceland along Highway 1, take a short detour and visit Hraunfossar. You will not be disappointed by this waterfall!