Photo spot in Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon
The canyon mouth and the riverbed
Where the Fjaðrá braids over gravel below the car park — the same walls seen from the bottom, with water at your feet and nobody above you.
About The canyon mouth and the riverbed
Get directionsMost visitors climb; the ground-level scene at the canyon mouth is the one they skip. Below the car park the river spreads over a gravel bed between the first walls of the gorge, shallow and clear, with the green pinnacles rising directly out of it.
This is where the relaxed frames happen: no drop, no queue, a couple walking on gravel with two hundred metres of canyon above them. The light in here is soft nearly all day because the walls do the shading, which makes it the useful counterpart to the rim path at midday when the top is harsh.
It is genuinely wet ground — braided channels move between visits, and after rain the gravel bars shrink. Boots for the approach and a change of shoes for the pictures is the standard arrangement. Do not wade upstream into the canyon itself: the water is colder and stronger than it looks, and the route beyond the first bend is not a walking path.
Best time to shoot
Midday, when the walls shade the riverbed and the rim is harsh
Tips
Boots in, dress shoes on arrival — the gravel bars are wet and they move. Don't wade upstream past the first bend.
Other spots in Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon
The first bend on the rim path
Five minutes up from the car park, where the canyon turns and the mossy pinnacles stack into the S-curve everyone recognises.
The end platform
The wooden platform at the top of the path, looking back down the whole two kilometres of canyon with the river winding through it.
Ready to book?
Our concierge team will hand-pick 2-3 photographers who know The canyon mouth and the riverbed — free of charge.