One day in Þjórsárdalur
Initially, we had planned to spend another day in Landmannalaugar and hike to Suðurnamúr. Unfortunately, it was raining that day, which meant we had to change plans and stay in the Þjórsárdalur valley. The sky was overcast but it wasn't raining. We were considering going a bit to the northwest, near the Golden Circle.
Haífoss and Granni
The region has so many points of interest. A few years ago, we'd visited Stöng and seen the Þjófafoss and Hjalparfoss waterfalls.
Today, we took road 32 heading west to see Haífoss. You have to turn north on the F332 to get there. After about ten kilometers of rather bumpy and rocky road, we arrived near the car park.
Note that the sign to the waterfall was barely indicated until the last second, and keep in mind it's an exit off the F332 and not at all the main road, the 32.
There are actually two waterfalls here, Haifoss and Granni. Granni is magnificent in its own right and was the first one we saw. Haífoss however was the most beautiful, towering at 122 meters.
The view from the top was just spectacular, and the sound of the two waterfalls combined rather impressive.
The oasis of Gjáin
Returning to route 26, we decided to picnic in the Gjain oasis. The place is quite incredible: an oasis of greenery and water in the middle of this rocky landscape.
We walked for a good hour on the various small trails, the few waterfalls are very pretty and the water contrasts well with the green landscape.
The Bruárfoss hike
In the early afternoon the weather got a bit worse, and we decided to head north to look for drier weather. For a long time, we had wanted to see the Bruarfoss waterfall. Long difficult to access, there was now a parking lot along Route 37, and access was well signposted.
This was a very easy short hike of 6.5 km round trip that we did in 1H45. It was completely flat on a well-marked trail, which ran along the river from start to finish. On the road, there were two other small waterfalls that were very pretty but much less beautiful than Bruárfoss, which was really magnificent and yet a bit unknown.
A small bridge allowed a great view of the waterfall and its turquoise water, and you could go down very close to the water if you wished.
We returned at the end of the afternoon, happy with our finally busy day despite the capricious weather and the last-minute change of plan.
