The reason for the name is in dispute, ranging from the gold-colored hue or that an early Viking had hidden some gold behind the falls (I tend to believe the former, the latter seems too difficult).
It is a two-stage waterfall. I will let Wikipedia set the scene:
The wide Hvítá river rushes southward, and about a kilometre above the falls it turns sharply to the right and flows down into a wide curved three-step "staircase" and then abruptly plunges in two stages (11 metres or 36 feet, and 21 metres or 69 feet) into a crevice 32 metres (105 ft) deep. The crevice, about 20 metres (66 ft) wide and 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) in length, extends perpendicular to the flow of the river. The average amount of water running down the waterfall is 140 cubic metres (4,900 cu ft) per second in the summer and 80 cubic metres (2,800 cu ft) per second in the winter.In sum, it is powerful, beautiful, and a lot of water rushing by!
At first, we walked along the top of the cliff to get an overall view. In the distance, the land was a flat plain, scraped clear by a massive glacier back in the day (way back in the day). Mountains reminiscent of the Grand Tetons rose, snow-covered, in the distance. (Don't worry, the Tetons are more breath-taking. These mountains are pretty, but they aren't quite Grand!)
We then went down alongside the falls, even out onto a rock (seen in the photos) to get close up to the upper falls. Walking past the lower falls, the mist kindly washed off any sulfur smell that remained from Geysir, as we got nice and wet.
There had been a move to use the power of the falls to generate hydro-electric power, but those plans fell through. It's a good thing, because otherwise it would have been a dam shame (rim shot!).
Then, it was back up to the visitor's center and cafeteria for some great Icelandic Lamb Stew.
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