Hraunfossar and Barnafoss

Hraunfossar is unusual because the water does not arrive from above. Meltwater filters through the porous Hallmundarhraun lava field, travels underground, and emerges along the edge of the flow as a row of small clear falls spilling into the Hvita river over several hundred metres. In summer the contrast is between blue-white water and green birch scrub; in autumn the ground cover turns red. A few minutes upstream Barnafoss is the opposite in character, a short violent set of rapids squeezed through a narrow lava chasm with a footbridge above it. A boardwalk connects the two and the whole visit takes under an hour.

What you actually see

• The spring line - dozens of small falls emerging directly from the edge of the lava.
• The lava field - the Hallmundarhraun flow the water travels through underground.
• Barnafoss - compressed rapids upstream in a narrow rock channel.
• The footbridge - the crossing above the chasm linking the two viewpoints.

When to go

Any time of year. Late September and early October give the strongest colour in the birch and bilberry on the lava. Winter visits work because the road is maintained, though the boardwalk gets icy. Come early or late in the day in summer, since this is a fixed stop on west Iceland tour routes.

Honest expectations

It is a viewpoint rather than an outing, and forty minutes covers it. You cannot get down to the water, and the falls are individually small, so photographs rarely convey the scale. The car park is undersized for the coach traffic it receives, and the boardwalk railings appear in most compositions.

Nearby

Husafell and the Vidgelmir lava cave are a few minutes east, with Reykholt to the west.