Guide to Dettifoss in Winter
After finishing up in the Mývatn area, we headed towards another one of Iceland’s most famous waterfalls, Dettifoss. Dettifoss is the largest waterfall in Iceland and considered to be the most powerful waterfall in all of Europe.
If you are following Route 1, or known as the Ring Road, you have two options for getting to Dettifoss. There are two roads that will lead to Dettifoss; however, depending on the time of year, you will only have one of those options available. This is what happened for us.
The two roads leading to Dettifoss, 862 and 864, will take you on either the east or west side of the waterfall. However, in the winter, 864 is closed. This used to be considered an F-road but is now gravel. Even with the upgrades to road conditions, this route is still quite dangerous and closed throughout the winter months. If you are visiting during the high season in summer, you shouldn’t have any issue and can take your pick. For us, though, we were visiting in early May, so 862 is was for us.
Another nice thing to note is that if you’d like to visit Ásbyrgi canyon these two roads will connect you to 85, which is the road you need for this site. However, again, if you’re visiting in the winter, this won’t be an option. Even though 862 is open to visitors for Dettifoss, it is closed north of the waterfall. We had hoped we could get through…
