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| The drive to Dettifoss on icy roads |
The drive to the site was long and arduous as the roads were icy, and it was beginning to get towards sundown. I wasn't sure we'd make it with enough daylight to see the place! Chris was concerned we would have to walk some distance to get to where we could see the falls - I didn't think that was the case because most tourist sites make it easy for tourists to get to the good places! I was wrong!
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| Me, happy in my crampons! |
When we got there, the parking lot was emptying out. We headed to the trail. Immediately I began slipping and sliding even though I had my great hiking boots on. I asked people coming off the trail what it was like and how far it was to the waterfall - treacherous the whole way and over 1/4 mile. Oops! Thank goodness I had my crampons in the car and Chris was generous enough to go get them for me because I was slipping every step of the way - I don't know what kept him upright - great balance, perhaps? He had no crampons at that point.
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| My glorious crampons! Like bears' teeth. A wonderful invention! |
Once I had my fabulous crampons on, I could walk over the ice beautifully! They have teeth like a bear trap so they dug into the ice with every step and kept me from falling really well. Note: if you decide to go to Iceland in the winter, get/take crampons!
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| The "trail" to Dettifoss |
The walk was still arduous. The trail wasn't clear and obvious - rather, we could tell where people had gone before because the snow was better packed down and in some places there were ropes showing us where not to go. The terrain was rocky, full of ancient rhyolite volcanic boulders and debris.
Once we got to the waterfall, I was disappointingly underwhelmed. It was, to be sure, massive - and LOUD! So much water! Therefore impressive. But not beautiful. There wasn't much light and the water appeared very muddy, not the fabulous white of other falls I'd seen. Perhaps it was so turgid, it was grey and brown instead of white - I don't know. Or perhaps I was tired and couldn't see the beauty. A friend of mine posted a beautiful picture of it from a different observation point from the summer and it looked gorgeous, so clearly it has a lot to offer which I didn't see this time around!
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| Dettifoss Waterfall (for scale, note the size of the posts and ropes of the trail markers) |
And here's the artwork I created in response to our trip to Dettifoss. The CitruSolve papers provided the perfect texture for me to express the flow of the water and the challenge of walking on the ice and the challenging rhyolite rocks. The image of the falls themselves is from a postcard I bought in the area. It gives a better sense of the actual color of the water than my picture since there wasn't much light left when we were there!
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| #19 Response to Dettifoss |
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