Litlanesfoss

From the junction of Highway 1 and Route 92 in the city of Egilsstaðir, follow Highway 1 (the Ring Road) south for 11km, then continue straight along the road as it becomes Route 931 where Highway 1 bears to the left. Continue along Route 931 for another 23km to a T-junction, then bear left where signs point to Snæfells. The parking lot for the trail will be found just over half of a kilometer further, immediately after the bridge crossing the Hengifossá. From the parking area, take the gated trail up a flight of stairs, then steadily climbing for for about 1.3km to where the falls can be seen from the rim of the canyon.Litlanesfoss is the second waterfall encountered along the trail to Hengifoss as one proceeds upstream. While the first waterfall passed along this trail (Jónsfoss) is not terribly noteworthy, Litlanesfoss is both much more significant and arguably the most geologically interesting waterfall in the area. The falls are made up of two distinct steps where the Hengifossá drops over a spectacularly well formed outcrop of columnar basalt, the upper tier falling 21 feet into a small pool, and then the lower tier sliding down 125 feet in a nearly vertical horsetail formation to a small blue pool below. Flanking the falls on either side the columnar jointing can be seen extending downstream for several hundred feet, making this one of the best locations in Iceland to see the geologic phenomena. When we surveyed the falls in August 2014, we measured its total drop at 146 feet, with the main drop falling 125 feet. In eyeballing the falls it did not look to us to be this tall (but around 100 feet seems likely), so its possible that there was an error in our measurement and that a second survey will need to be done to confirm. Until such time, we will assume that the numbers are correct.