Kvernufoss Waterfall

Kvernugil canyon is about 500 meters east of Skógar Museum and there is a hiking path through the beautiful canyon and to the waterfall of Kvernufoss which cascades off the rock face at the end of the canyon.

The walk to the waterfall takes about 20 minutes and there is a new path leading up to the waterfall. You can see several different geological formations in the ravine, including basalt columns, cube jointed basalt and stratified palagonite tuff. Kvernugil probably started to form at the end of the last glacial period when the river started to dig itself into the underlying strata.

The river Kverna, or Kvernuhólsá, runs through the canyon. The drainage basin of the river is high up on Skógaheiði heath and it is a tributary of Skógá river, joining Skógá river about 2,1 km below the waterfall. Kvernufoss waterfall is a beautiful waterfall and is one of the few waterfalls in Iceland where you can walk behind it. Behind the waterfall, the rock can be loose and slippery, so people should be careful when walking there.