Ryfossen

Take Route 55 north from the town of Sogndalsfjøra to the town of Gaupne, and then turn left onto Route 604 (just before crossing the river), signed for Nigardsbreen and Jostedalsbreen National Park. Drive 7 km up the valley and watch for the falls on the right, across the river. There is a small pullout on the left side of the road where two or three cars can park for viewing the falls.Ryfossen is the first major waterfall encountered within the Jostedalen as one travels up river towards the immense glaciers which flow from the Jostedal Icecap. The east wall of the valley here features sheer cliffs over 400m tall in places, creating tantalizing possibilities for waterfalls to form. Ryfossen drops through a narrow alcove in the middle of this area of cliffs, falling about 1,100 feet in a long concave style horsetail. The upper half of the falls drops in a near free-fall fashion into a bowl shaped depression in the cliff wall. As the gradient eases, the stream continues cascading over solid bedrock, becoming progressively broader until just before the base of the falls where it constricts again for a final small plunge to the rocky riverbed below. The drainage basin feeding Ryfossen does not harbor any permanent bodies of water or ice, so the falls rely heavily on the winter snowfall and precipitation for sustenance. The basin is large enough that the falls will not dry out during the summer but the volume of water will drops substantially when there isn’t rain consistently replenishing the drainage.We've seen conflicting data suggesting the proper spelling of the falls is both Ryfossen and Ryefossen. Norway's national mapping agency lists it as Ryfossen, so that's what we're going with for now.