Waterfalls, waterfalls, waterfalls

The drive just keeps getting more and more amazing. We had been driving along flat plains when suddenly up pops these steep cliffed mountains. Almost everywhere you look, water pours off the mesa above to the valley floor below. I mean, you find a 10-foot waterfall in the USA and you're thrilled. But tall, dramatic, scenic waterfalls abound here. The first major one we stopped at was near the Southwestern edge of the range that includes the Eyjafjallajökull glacier and volcano, responsible for last year's eruption. It is right off the highway. It is so cool to be just driving along and THERE IT IS. You just hop off the highway and park. The major waterfall here is called Seljalandsfoss. It is difficult for you to get a sense of scale from some of these photos; but believe me, they're tall. Seljalandsfoss is about 200 feet high. What's extra cool about it is that you can climb up behind it.

But that's not all. All along the wall of this cliff are waterfalls of different sizes. We walked to the north a little. The next photo is a view back towards Seljalandsfoss. It is so beautiful here! Green fields, charming little old houses, farmers working the land, and nothing but gorgeous empty nature.

Then we got to the hidden gym (just a turn to the left from the last photo). As you can see from the following image, only the top of Gljúfurárfoss can be viewed. That means many people don't notice it or just drive by without investigating. However, led by Patrick, we climbed the big rock to see the waterfall in full glory.

Climbing up that rock and working our way through passageways, you come to a ledge only about 20 feet from the falls. You can peer down and see the rest of it. It falls into a deep open "cavern" all the way to the bottom. No photo I took did justice to it. I'll try to post a video that pans the view. But it was awesome. The views were spectacular everywhere. Here is one back out towards the flat valley plain.

And yet another find! When we climbed down to the outlet stream and looked back, there was a huge slender vertical crevice that let you peer into the full length of the falls. Amazing!