Múlafoss

Because there are no signs pointing to the trailhead, and the road leading from Highway 1 to the parking area is rough and hard to spot, finding the falls may be a bit of a chore. The turn off to the trail is found 3.75km west of the signed turn to Fjallsárlón, or 13km west of Jökulsárlón (the Glacial Lagoon). The road was difficult to spot when driving past, so keep a sharp eye out - the falls should be partially visible from the highway in the area. Once the correct road has been located, follow it for a very rough 2.2km to its end next to a flood dike. There are no signs indicating that cars are restricted from driving the road, but it is rough enough that it may be impassable without high clearance and 4wd. At the end of the road, look for a very faint path which climbs up the flood dike, then heads to the left and becomes more obvious in a few hundred feet. Watch for short wooden stakes in the ground marking the trail, which climbs steadily for about 2km to the rim of the canyon directly across from Hangandifoss. Múlafoss can be seen directly up the canyon nearly a kilometer away from this point. It is possible to get closer by following the trail further up for another half-kilometer to a flat dirt covered area where the path seems to disappear, and then climb steeply up the hillside towards the promontory ahead and to the right where a more direct view is had down into the falls, a total distance of about 2.8km from the car park.Mulafoss is a waterfall situated at, or at least near, the head of the impressive Múlagljúfur (canyon) on the east side of Öræfajökull near Jökulsárlón. The falls appear to drop somewhere around 330 feet in multiple steps, the largest drop being the final plunge of 176 feet, the only one we were able to accurately measure. The stream producing the falls appears to be the major meltwater outlet of two separate glaciers (whether either are officially named is not clear from the maps available through the National Land Survey of Iceland), and because both glaciers seem to produce significant volumes of water, neither can be easily identified as the primary stream based on our observations. This is worthy of note because a portion of the falls occurs on one of the two streams, plunging down a narrow canyon in multiple steps, while the other stream remains entirely hidden from view in its narrow section of the canyon. Below where the two streams merge, they plunge over the final 176-foot fall into a portion of the canyon which is at least 500 feet deep, if not more. Additionally, the Icelandic topographic maps indicate the stream Rótarfjallsá to occur in the next drainage to the north of the canyon. However in observing the imagery available on both Google Earth and the NLSI website, it appears probable that the primary stream from this glacier should more appropriately be the stream which this waterfall occurs on. Whether this can be properly considered to be the Rótarfjallsá is not clear, but until it can be further clarified we will operate under this assumption. The primary method of access to the falls involves following a nondescript, though poorly marked trail to a vista along the rim of the Múlagljúfur. However, as the parking area for the trail is situated just downstream of the mouth of the canyon, it appears to be possible to hike up the bottom of the canyon as well - though this method of access will almost certainly require wading across its river multiple times. Whether it would be possible to hike all the way to the base of this waterfall is not clear, but it appears likely that as long as one could get to the base of nearby Hangandifoss, it should be possible to at least see Múlafoss.We had not seen any indication that this waterfall was named in any sort of official manner, so we opted to refer to it after the watercourse at the time of our initial report. As it turns out Múlafoss is actually the official name of this waterfall, per the National Land Survey of Iceland.