Hakid View-Point and Oxararfoss Waterfall

Article By: Dan Hill

5 years ago

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Eat & Drink-Cafe Nature-Cliffs Nature-Hill Nature-Park Nature-River Nature-Rock formation Nature-View point Nature-Waterfall Social Distance-Social distance friendly

Hakid View-Point and Oxararfoss Waterfall

Thingvellir (Þingvellir in Icelandic) National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The park was established between 1928 and 1930 to protect the remains of a historical parliament site. It was later expanded to protect the area's diverse nature. At the Visitor Centre in Thingvellir, you'll find parking and an interesting and well managed walk which ends at Oxararfoss waterfall - for a great introduction to Icelandic geology. It's one of the most popular stops on the Golden Circle tourist route in Iceland - and therefore expect to meet plenty of other tourists. There's an incredible view point known as Hakid that looks across the plains at the start of the walk. Very quickly, walkers find themselves walking through the gorge caused by the Almannagjá fault - which marks the boundary of the Mid-Atlantic Rift (the dividing point between the North American and Eurasian plates). The stone walls grow taller either side of the path, before the right hand side opens up to provide views across the plains. There have been built several wooden platforms and walkways to allow hikers to come off the track to enjoy the incredible views and practice their photography. The picturesque Oxararfoss waterfall, by Icelandic standards, is fairly small ("only" 20m in height), but a great photo-opportunity none-the-less - that you won't want to miss. The walk is fairly gentle and should be manageable by most, and took us a couple of hours at the most (with a 2 year old child) round-trip. At the visitor centre at the carpark, you'll also find a café selling drinks (including coffee, tea and hot-chocolate), snacks and plenty of tourist gifts. I think the toilet facilities here could qualify for offering the world's most incredible view (the mens at least!). Don't forget to pay for parking - which you can do online using your license plate.