Langfoss or Langfossen as it is sometimes called is possibly one of the more beautiful cascade waterfalls in the world. A width of 250 feet, the river spills over the side of a mountain slope for a length of 2000 feet before it joins the waters of the Åkra Fjord. The mountain is green with flora in the summers and a slippery slope in the cold season. Langfoss is the 5th highest waterfall in Norway and is among the tallest waterfalls in the world. Though some dismiss it as a true waterfall because it is a cascade rather than a true plunge waterfall that loses contact with the rock face as it plunges to the water below. However many visitors to the sight care less for the dispute and more for the awe inspiring sight.
This waterfall is set in the Municipality of Etne, specifically it sits in Fjaera. Etne contains about 4,000 people and is a popular little tourist locale in the summer. Well-known for their country markets and fishing festivals, not to mention the waterfall itself. On the land opposite river that the waterfall Langfoss enters is a small rest area and visitor’s kiosk. Tourists are often found, necks craned in awe of the spilling waterway.
Langfoss pours down the mountainside in a rich tumultuous froth of water from top to bottom. It is diverted around large rocky outcroppings that would bring to a painful halt any courageous or silly enough to attempt extreme white water rafting down this waterfall. One or two particularly large rocky outcrops are known to host a few frail conifers that have managed to take seed in the thin soil and have more than enough water flowing around them. Though they are stunted in growth they offer a small sense of comfort that this roiling waterway isn’t entirely dangerous to all life. On the sides of the waterfall the rocks slowly give way to a thick layer of mature conifers that are attempting to fill in the bald spots on the mountainside.
Year round tourists can visit Norway and find that the flow of water from Langfoss is at the height of its flow. It is a perennial waterfall which means that unlike some waterfalls, such as Victoria Falls it is unaffected by changing conditions in the seasons. The volume of water issuing forth from Victoria Falls is dramatically reduced during the dry seasons on the African continent, whereas Langfoss maintains the same flow year round.
Although many waterfalls in Norway have been utilized by the building of Hydroelectric plants in their waterways, Langfoss has not been altered in such a manner. Naturally any such plant would divert much of the volume of water from the waterfall and greatly diminish its flow down the mountainside to a mere trickle. However, Langfoss and a few other waterfalls in Norway have been lucky to escape utilization and remain preserved in their natural state to continue their work eroding the cliff faces and mountainsides they issue forth from.