900 Meters of Waterfalls - Hraunfossar

Despite advice from TLC in their song "Waterfalls", everyone who visits Iceland chases waterfalls. Simply put, it's what you do. Jokes aside, I knew of three waterfalls in Iceland before I visited last year and there are dozens of spectacular waterfalls that we saw that we DIDN'T stop to admire. There really are that many! Everyone knows the best known waterfalls; Skógafoss, Gullfoss, Seljalandsfoss, Kirkjufellsfoss, and Godafoss. We visited all of those waterfalls and they are spectacular, but we visited a few lesser known waterfalls including Hraunfossar or translated to English, Lava Falls.

We spent the morning departing from Lýtingsstaðir, a horse farm in northwest Iceland, and drove to Hraunfossar to check out the countless small waterfalls that flow into the Hvita River, not to be confused with the Hvita River that flows over Gullfoss in southern Iceland. Ancient lava beds formed these numerous small waterfalls that flow through vegetation, it would have been beautiful in the fall with the changing colors of the foliage. Alas, we visited in May but I would love to go back in September sometime.

While visiting Hraunfossar, I was a very bad tourist and stepped in a roped off area. After getting chewed out in Icelandic, a man came by and said he was going to get the police. While I felt like calling his bluff, I decided that it wasn't worth going to war over. Fun fact, Iceland doesn't have a standing army. I apologized for my ignorance and kindly removed myself from the roped off area. If you're visiting Iceland, respect their closures. A lot of times, they are for good reason and present a hazard like falling off a cliff.

Excuse my badly blown-out photo here, I forget how to take basic long-exposure photos all the time

Definitely recommend going out of the way to check out this beautiful and amazing collection of waterfalls, even as "jaded" we were of waterfalls by that point in the trip we were still blown away by the beauty of this place. Next up, Gullfoss!