Glanni

Just a short walk off route 5 is a lovely low waterfall and a path on to Paradise Glen. Glanni is a low, wide set of falls on the Norðurá river near the  small town of Bifrost.  From a small parking area with toilets and visitor’s center (which was closed early in May), the falls is a five minute walk. The signage wasn’t particularly helpful — a road leads onward from the parking area, but the falls are down a narrower gravel path to the right. You can easily hear the falls before you can see them, and it is possible to view them from a raise platform on the bank.

Local stories say that the waterfall is the home of elves and possibly trolls — but just about any landcape in Iceland is rumored to home to the little people. The falls skirt the edge of a lava flow (approximate 3600 years old) in three different paths across the river.

Nearby is Paradis Glen, a secluded and moss-covered spot with a tiny pool and small stream among the scattered rocks. Also nearby is the Grábrökarhraun lava field, which stretched out in pale-green moss and stone along the riverside. There is apparently great salmon fishing on the  Norðurá river and they can occasionally be seen heading upriver at the waterfall.

 

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