Iceland's "secret" waterfall — which everyone now knows about, tucked behind a slot in the rock
40m
Height (~131 ft)
"Canyon Dweller"
Rough translation of the name
~200m
North of Seljalandsfoss
10-20 min
Walk from Seljalandsfoss
The Story
Gljúfrabúi means roughly "canyon dweller," and it earns the name — the waterfall itself is almost entirely hidden inside a narrow rock cleft, invisible until you're standing right at the entrance. Locals kept this one quietly to themselves for years, long after Seljalandsfoss next door had become a tour-bus staple. That's changed, but the waterfall's physical setup hasn't: you still have to earn the view.
Getting in means either wading through a shallow stream into the gorge or scrambling up the rock in front of it — there's no dry, effortless path. Inside, a mossy, enclosed chamber opens up around the 40-meter drop, a genuinely different feeling from standing in the open at Seljalandsfoss. It sits on the same ancient sea cliff as its more famous neighbor, part of the same long-retreated coastline that also produced Skógafoss, 30km to the east.
As You Walk Around
Easy to miss if you're not looking
Wear shoes you don't mind getting wet. There's no way in that stays fully dry — wading through the stream is the easy option, climbing the rock is the alternative, and neither keeps your feet dry.
Look up once you're inside. The enclosed, mossy walls of the gorge create a very different atmosphere from any open waterfall — it feels more like a hidden room than a landscape feature.
Many visitors skip this entirely, assuming Seljalandsfoss is "the" stop. The short extra walk is exactly what keeps it from being as crowded.