No, that waterfall in Stranger Things wasn't CGI. No green screen, no digital set, not built in a computer. It's Háifoss and Granni, two very real waterfalls falling side by side into a canyon in the Þjórsárdalur valley (often written Thjorsardalur) in South Iceland, about 130 km from Reykjavík. You can actually go and stand where Eleven was.
Where was the Stranger Things finale filmed?
The final scene was filmed at Háifoss and Granni, a pair of waterfalls that drop side by side into a deep canyon on the Fossá river, in the Þjórsárdalur valley. The valley sits in the south of Iceland, only about one and a half to two hours from Reykjavík and conveniently close to the famous Golden Circle route.
The Duffer Brothers have discussed the shoot in interviews since the finale aired, describing a location shot in Iceland with a small crew and a drone, late in production. They didn't name the falls, but they didn't need to. Plenty of Icelanders who know the valley recognized it on sight, viewers everywhere else had the canyon pinned within hours of the finale airing, and behind-the-scenes photographs from the shoot put the crew and Millie Bobby Brown at Háifoss.
Are the Stranger Things waterfalls real?
Yes, and you can go and see them for yourself. The only thing in the famous final shot that isn't real is the small town in the distance, which was added afterwards. The canyon, the falls, and even the rainbow were all there on the day.
What are the names of the waterfalls?
The waterfalls are real enough to have names, and Icelandic place names tend to go for description over poetry. Háifoss means "high waterfall," which it delivers on. Granni means "neighbor," which is what you call the waterfall next door once you've used up the good name. They're fed by the Fossá, a river whose name means, with total consistency, "waterfall river."
Two waterfalls or three?
In the finale we finally see the far-off place Mike had described to Eleven: somewhere quiet, somewhere with three waterfalls. The shot shows two. Whether there's a deeper meaning in that, and whether it was meant at all, is still a bone of contention among fans.
From the viewpoint you'll see two, and they're closer siblings than they look. The Fossá splits into two arms a short way upstream, drops twice into the same canyon as Háifoss and Granni, then joins back together at the bottom of the gorge.
The third waterfall does exist, further down the valley. Follow the Fossá to where it meets the Þjórsá and you reach Hjálparfoss, a broad twin cascade framed by twisted basalt columns, a short drive from the Háifoss parking area. So Mike wasn't wrong. You just can't fit all three in one frame.
How tall is Háifoss?
Háifoss drops 122 m into the canyon, making it the third tallest waterfall in Iceland after Glymur and Hengifoss. This ranking sets aside Morsárfoss, which is taller than all of them. It appeared as Morsárjökull retreated and falls straight off the glacier, so its flow swings with the melt and runs hardest in high summer. Falls that depend on the ice like that tend to be listed apart from the permanent waterfalls, which is why you'll see Háifoss called third tallest in some places and fourth in others.
The scale of Háifoss is hard to read on screen. Honestly, it's hard to take in from the viewpoint too. Granni sits right beside it, close enough that one frame gets you both. There's little around the canyon to give your eye something to measure against, so the drop looks shorter than it is until something small moves at the bottom of it and the size finally lands.
How do you get to Þjórsárdalur from Reykjavík?
Þjórsárdalur is roughly one and a half to two hours' drive from Reykjavík: Route 1 east out of the city, then Route 30 and Route 32 up into the valley, where the south of the country starts turning into highlands.
Can you drive to Háifoss?
Yes, though the last stretch is the slowest part of the trip. Háifoss and Granni sit further in, at the top end of the valley, and Road 332, which runs up to the parking area, is rough gravel. Worth knowing that before you turn onto it rather than after.
Check conditions on road.is before you set out, take it slowly, and make sure your vehicle is up to it.
Are Háifoss and Granni near the Golden Circle?
Close, though not on it. The classic Golden Circle loop takes in Þingvellir, Geysir, and Gullfoss, and Þjórsárdalur sits just east of it. This makes the valley an easy add-on to a Golden Circle day or a natural stop if you're carrying on along the south coast.
It's also a change of pace. The Golden Circle is one of the most visited routes in Iceland. If you're after something a little further off the main track, the valley sits just outside the busiest stretch of the south. That's really an argument for the detour in itself: not much further to drive for somewhere that still feels like a bit of a find.
What is the Þjórsárdalur valley?
What the camera doesn't show is everything behind it. The valley above these falls, Þjórsárdalur, was farmed for two hundred years, then buried under ash by the volcano Hekla in 1104. For a show about a place with something hidden underneath it, the location scouts did better than they perhaps knew.
Today Þjórsárdalur packs a lot into a short drive, and the waterfalls are only part of what's here. There are ruins, hiking routes and some of the most varied ground in South Iceland.
What else is there to see in Þjórsárdalur?
Those are a few of the highlights beyond Háifoss and Granni, rather than the whole list.
Gjáin: A small green ravine filled with pools, springs and little waterfalls. It sits below the gravel plains around it, so you don't see it until you're at the edge. Gjáin was used as a filming location in Game of Thrones.
Stöng: The ruins of a Viking-age farm buried by the 1104 eruption and excavated in 1939. Most of what we know about daily life in the valley comes from this one site.
Þjóðveldisbærinn, the Commonwealth Farm: A full-size reconstruction of the Stöng farmhouse, built from turf and timber. You can go inside, which makes it much easier to picture than the ruins. It was also a Game of Thrones filming location.
Hjálparfoss waterfall: The third waterfall on the Fossá river, wide and low where Háifoss is tall and narrow, framed by twisted basalt columns.
Hiking and landscape: Walking routes run throughout the valley, including a trail along the Fossá between Stöng and Háifoss. The ground changes quickly here, from black sand to birch woodland to moss, often within a few kilometres.
Is Þjórsárdalur worth visiting?
Between the waterfalls, the ruins, the hiking, and the landscapes, there's a full day here (or perhaps a few). The fact that it sits just off the busiest route in Iceland is exactly why it deserves a slot in the plan rather than a squeeze at the end of one.
Þjórsárdalur is also being built out as a place to stay rather than just drive through: a welcome house, a campsite, cabins, geothermal baths, and a hotel set into the mountainside. The main site has the current details.
The valley was worth the drive long before a film crew turned up, and it will be long after. A television show is just the reason a lot of people are hearing about it now. The valley is what makes the detour pay off.
