You can: Park the rental car in the large parking lot, take a quick look at the shop with skins, hats, mosquito repellent and other Icelandic souvenirs and then walk to the water, which rushes down so spectacularly over two steps at a right angle. Or, better: turn off the horse and go straight down to the roaring water.
Riding to Gullfoss is a special experience. In a brisk tölt on the practical bridle paths next to the road, at the waterfall horses in the pen, it couldn’t be more authentic.
The early explorers, men like Frederick WW Howell, also came on horseback – at that time for lack of an alternative. The British photographer traveled to Iceland in the late 19th century and he captured his “little guide”, as he patronizingly called her: Sigríður Tómasdóttir was an Icelandic environmentalist, an early Greta Thunberg, who lived not far from the waterfall. She fought successfully against the construction of a hydroelectric power station at Gullfoss. It is thanks to her that the spectacle can be seen in its natural state – a stroke of luck for today’s visitors as well as for Iceland’s itinerant trade.
Of course, you will never have the waterfall to yourself, at least not in summer. Because Gullfoss is on one of the main tourist routes, not far from the two well-known geysers “Strokkur” and “Big Geyser” in the Haukadalur valley. Buses, caravans, rental cars – everything drives this way. It’s just too beautiful here. And then you don’t want to leave anyway: Because where the drizzle from the waterfall reaches, the mosquitoes are also blown away.