Kirkjufellsfoss, Iceland

My wife and I took a wonderful trip to Iceland back in May. We spent most of our time in the southern regions of the country, but also spent two days in the Snæfellsnes peninsula. I really wanted to see Kirkjufell, a mountain near Grundarfjorour, and the waterfall associated with it. The waterfall itself isn’t huge, but you see many beautiful photos of it with the mountain behind.

We arrived in Grundarfjorour on a wet, rainy day having driven from Reykjavik. We stayed on a sheep farm a short walk from the waterfall, Kirkjufellsfoss. The mountain, Kirkjufell, towered over our small cabin.

The waterfall itself was very, very crowded with tourists trying to get that iconic photo. I decided to wait until a better time to take some photos. What I was really hoping for was a break in the clouds and rain — we had rain five out of seven days we were in Iceland.

In May in Iceland, the sun never goes too far below the horizon. Technically the sun was setting around 11:30 p.m. and rising around 3:30 a.m. However, it never gets completely dark. My goal, to avoid other tourists, was to get up early and try to see things with as few other people around as possible.

I peeked out the window the following morning around 4:00 a.m. and to my delight, saw sunshine — the sun was up, the clouds had breaks, and it actually wasn’t raining. I immediately grabbed my camera and headed to the waterfall. When I arrived, there was only one other vehicle there, some Japanese tourists who looked to be sleeping in their van. For a short while, about 30 minutes, I mostly had the place to myself. I tried to get some nice shots from different angles, here they are.

Kirkjufellsfoss sign — no drones!

Kirkjufellsfoss

Kirkjufellsfoss Panorama

Kirkjufellsfoss

This was also a nice place to get a good photo of Grundarfjorour:

Grundarfjorour, Iceland

Back at the farm, I also took a few sheep photos:

Sheep, Iceland

This ended up being one of my favorite places in Iceland. The waterfall itself isn’t nearly as spectacular as Skogafoss or Seljalandsfoss in the south, but the addition of the strangely shaped Kirkjufell really makes the scene.