It was our 6th time in Iceland, and I thought we visited all the most beautiful places along the south coast we could… but it turned out there are a lot more to see. Þakgil (Thakgil) is one of those places you should not miss.
Visiting Þakgil is all about both the journey and the destination, it offers beautiful scenery all the way from the beginning to the end.
The road to Þakgil is called Kerlingardalsvegur, it is about 16km long and starts about 5km East of Vik. It is a gravel road, and it takes about 20-30 minutes to get from Route 1 to the Þakgil campsite (that is if you are not tempted to stop for a few photos again and again).
Actually, it was hard not to stop after every turn to take more photos.
It took us much longer than 30 minutes to get to the Þakgil campsite, so by the time we got there, I was in dire need of a restroom. The camp had restrooms, but they weren’t free, so I had to go to the reception to pay. Thankfully, they take cards, because I had no cash.
From the campsite, there is a very short walk to a small lake and a waterfall surrounded by mountains.
On one side there is a creek that provides a good foreground for the mountain outlines.
At the end of the trail, there is a small lake with a waterfall. The views are quite nice, but this is where the trail stops, and there is no way to go any further.
There is a lot more to Þakgil than the areas around the campground. For example, there is a fairly short hike (about 1 hour round trip) to Remundargilsfoss waterfall through Remundargil canyon. The hike is not very crowded but it is not well marked either (especially, the final part). Basically, we had to follow a dried-out riverbed, then cross a small creek, and after a turn, only when we got to the end of the canyon, we saw a waterfall flowing down like a bridal veil onto the rocks.
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