Under the south hills of the Langjökull Glacier, are many spectacular places that are easy to visit in a 4×4. One of those places is Nýjifoss (New Falls) and the river that hosts it, Farið (The Mark). The best way to get to this place from Reykjavik is by going through Thingvellir National Park. From there the mountain roads lead up to Bláskógarheidi on Road number 52. After a while one drives by a pretty dried up lake called Uxaklyftarvatn, from there it´s a short way to the junction where the mountain road F338 goes to the right under the south hills of the Langjökull glacier. This road is spectacular, with black desert sands contrasted by green grass patches and all the way littered by huge pylons, moving electricity from the electric dams in the highlands. These pylons are certainly not for everyone but they do make an impression and sometimes the lines form interesting forms against all the nothingness. This area is criss crossed with interesting paths leading south towards the Thingvellir area and north to the roots of the Langjokull glacier. Around Hlöðufell mountain and up to the shoulders of Skjaldbreidur mountain. One of the tracks leads from Hlöðufell and to Laugarvatn (Bath Lake) through a very interesting terrain. As we approach the manmade lake Sandvatn (Sand Lake) made to stop the sand and mud storms that swept across this area and down into the farmlands south of here, we cross a small river easy to cross in any truck or SUV and hit the Kjölur Mountain Road. Heading north for a few minutes we turn left onto F335 that leads to our final destination, Hagavatn and Farið. This road is rather featureless goes through rock covered ground, flat all the way to the mountains surrounding the Langjökull glacier to the south.As soon as we traverse the small pass through the Jarlhettur mountains (Earl hats mountains) the landscape jumps up in scale from boring to amazing. Green hills, big rocks, glacial river and the looming glacier all surrounded by majestic mountains and in the midst a small rescue hut with a lone birch tree to chalk up a perfect picture.After crossing the river, the way is pretty straight forward to Nýjifoss (New Falls), besides the falls is a very steep hill- that is hard to travel even in heavy duty trucks, so the best bet is to walk up the short but steep hill to Hagavatn.

Edit: Title change after observations from reader

Snorri Gunnarsson is an Icelandic Photographer based in Reykjavik Iceland. Focusing on Landscape, commercial, wedding and editorial photography.

farið gunnarsson highlands iceland icelandic photographer landscape landslag leynifoss ljósmyndari ljósmyndun photographer PHOTOGRAPHY - LJÓSMYNDUN snorri