Quietest times / Dettifoss waterfall
The quietest time to visit Dettifoss waterfall — measured
The road past Dettifoss waterfall is quietest before 10:00 and again after 19:00, carrying under a third of its 13:00 peak — about 4.3× less traffic than mid-afternoon.
Hour by hour
Average vehicles per hour on Dettifossvegur, through the summer. Icelandic time throughout.
| Hour | Vehicles/hour |
|---|---|
| 06:00 | 1 |
| 07:00 | 2 |
| 08:00 | 8 |
| 09:00 | 28 |
| 10:00 | 64 |
| 11:00 | 89 |
| 12:00 | 116 |
| 13:00 | 118 |
| 14:00 | 113 |
| 15:00 | 111 |
| 16:00 | 94 |
| 17:00 | 75 |
| 18:00 | 52 |
| 19:00 | 31 |
| 20:00 | 17 |
| 21:00 | 9 |
| 22:00 | 4 |
How this was measured, and what it cannot tell you
Vegagerðin counts vehicles every ten minutes at a counter 2.6 km away, on Dettifossvegur. This page averages 222 days of those counts by hour of day.
What it cannot tell you: how many people are there. A coach is one vehicle and fifty visitors, so a road that is quiet by traffic can still have a full viewing platform. The counter is on the road, not at the site, so it sees everyone driving past — including people going somewhere else entirely. And it describes a normal summer day, not tomorrow: weather and a cruise-ship arrival both beat any average.
About Dettifoss waterfall · Other places · Weather in Iceland
Or skip the queue entirely
Step inside Dettifoss waterfall — a stop on the Diamond Circle.