You might be wondering, why Iceland? Well it had been on my list for the past few years as the place is a photographers dream, but it also goes in accordance with our plan to visit a National Park every year. Our planning for this year was to visit friends in the UK around this time of year and make a nature/scotch trip up to Scotland but schedules did not quite line up. This left Rebe and I with some last minute planning to put a trip together and as I may have mentioned in an earlier post lodging in the national parks is tough to come by with last minute planning. So... Iceland it is.
After a very productive Thursday at work, it was time to go on vacation. Every trip has a bit of drama and Thursday was the day for drama. As soon as we arrive to the airport we notice that all flights to Newark (our flight was connecting through Newark, departing 450pm) have been delayed due to a massive weather system coming across the east coast. The Houston-Newark flight that was due to leave at 130pm was leaving at 330pm and the 230pm was now at 450pm. Our flight was not due to leave until 550pm and this would have had us miss our connection to Iceland...
If you're ever going to miss a flight because of a delay, try to change flights before you check your bags because once your bags are checked you are locked into that flight. So before we checked bags we had a talk with the gate agent to see if we could get on the original 130 flight... and YES we could and so we did.
Landed in Iceland at 830 in the morning and were we in for a surprise, 46F (8C), about a 30mph wind along with a bit a sleet flying sideways as we exited the airport. Our pickup driver was having a bit of a laugh at our shocked faces, and we asked if this was normal and he laughed even more and said "yeah, and if you wait 5 minutes it'll change." But he didn't say it would actually get better...
In keeping with our 'roughin' it theme from the rafting trip of last year, this year in Iceland we were going to do a bit more camping, but this time from the back of a van.
Yep, 2 seats, 1 too thin sleeping pad and a cupboard to hold some dishes, note I didn't say it had a heater.
Now with our ride in hand, it was time to stock up on further supplies other than the bag of food that we brought with us. Living in a camper van for the week isn’t the most glamorous way of seeing Iceland and driving so much through the country (with no concrete plan) leaves you with fewer options of when and where you can eat. Best to have a few PB&Js stocked up for the quick snacks or substitute dinner. We also found these kickass Truffle Potato chips, so good that we actually went back to the grocery store and brought some stateside (we actually visited multiple grocery stores on the trip and only found them as this one grocery store).
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| Kickass Truffle Chips |
Fixed up with food, now we had to figure out where to go. Again our lack of planning strikes again. Clockwise around the island or counterclockwise? Golden Circle first or save that for last? Blogs I have been reading and the one I liked the most said to go counterclockwise, so that’s what we decided on… kinda. Note, this was after the plane ride and minimal sleep on the plane back in cattle-class. I probably slept 1-2 hours, Rebe maybe 2-3 and here we are driving around the countryside trying to take in all the beauty. Rebe said F it and hopped in the back of the camper van and got her some Z’s and I trudged along down the highway. First stop would be off the golden circle to The Great Geysir.
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| The not so Great Geysir |
Problem with The Great Geysir is that it doesn’t really erupt that often anymore, so you have loads of tourist standing around to see this great show like it’s Old Faithful but this geyser hardly erupts any more if at all. Luckily for Iceland there is the Strokkur Geyser right next to The Great Geysir and it erupts probably every 10 minutes with a plume of water 30 meters high.
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| Strokkur Geyser |
This was our first stop and our first run in with the crowds of Iceland, we knew the island was now a big draw for tourist but it was a bit more crowded than I was expected. I mean it wasn’t ridiculous but I was thinking internally that this entire trip can’t be this crowded and luckily it wasn’t.
After hiking around the geothermal area, we got back to our camper van and kept it moving. This is a big island and we had plenty we needed to see so no point in dilly dallying around. KEEP IT MOVING. Next stop was to be Gullfoss (Golden Falls). This is a 2 layer water fall on the Hvítá river, with a small step and then a large fall into a canyon. Access is allowed with viewing from further down the canyon and then there is a walkway right up to the falls. It’s a big fall, with large spray and it really started the trip off with a sense of what this island has to offer.
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| Gullfoss |
As I said in the previous paragraph, KEEP IT MOVING. We now left the Golden Circle and headed toward the coast for the ring road, Road 1 that circles the country.
Finally on Road 1 (the main ring road that goes around the island), we reached Saljalandsfoss. What’s amazing is a lot of the sites we were going to see were literally visible from the road. Even if we didn’t have them marked on our map as places we planned to see, we could just stop and take a look. We also started to call this “FOMO” or Fear Of Missing Out, it turned into a game at tourist stops where we would walk to a ledge with no interesting view and stand there for a while just to see if we could get others to follow us to see this grand view of nothing… sad thing is we figured other people were doing this to us. It wouldn’t just happen at tourist stops, you would see someone pulled over and we would freak out internally thinking we might miss a secret of Iceland.
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| Saljalandsfoss |
We reached Saljalandsfoss around 5pm or 6pm and it was time to make our first dinner. Being on the ring road we were far from where we had planned to camp and of course no where near a town or actual restaurants. Well the joys of being in a camper van with our food supply, what should we eat? Pad Thai, Vegetable Korma, Chili? Oh you’re thinking, there’s a kitchen in that delivery van you’re driving? Not in the slightest but it come with a can of butane and a couple of pots and pans. We reached into our luggage and selected from our collection of dehydrated meals that only required rehydration, boiled some water, let it sit. While letting the food “cook” we walked over to the waterfall and even behind it.
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| Dinner! |
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| Saljalandsfoss from the side |
Back on the road for our next stop, Skogafoss. Skogafoss had been on my list of epic waterfalls to see, I really cannot explain why I found this one so striking in the images I’d seen before. It’s really just a waterfall into a black bedded river (Iceland is was formed by a lot of volcanic activity so black sand and rocks are everywhere) and set back in a slight cove. I can’t explain it…
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| Skogafoss |
By now, it was late and still running on minimal sleep it was time to find a campsite, there happened to be a campsite at Skogafoss but for some reason we didn’t deem it worthy of staying at that night. Maybe this was the jet lag kicking in and helping us make a stupid decision. Plus I had heard of this black sand beach that was amazing and it was our next planned stop, so why not get closer to it for some epic sunrise pictures? Maybe even camp there? Technically campers are supposed to camp at camp sites and camp sites only and being the first night we were a bit hesitant to camp basically along the side of the road. We then decided to head to the next town called Vik, there was a campsite in town and we would just pull up and join the rest of the campers in the area.
Well, kinda… We got to the campsite late and it was packed. It was so packed and we were so tired we just parked outside the campsite, next to other campers who had the same idea hopped out brushed our teeth and called it a night.
Saturday September 8th - Rain, Sneaker Waves and More Rain
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| 2 hours of driving |
Like I said for the previous day, I wanted to catch the sunrise at the black sand beach. I woke up later than I expected due to the jet lag and no I didn’t set an alarm because who sets an alarm while on vacation and you could not see the sun because the clouds were out in full force.
With Rebe still sleeping in the back of the camper van, I pulled out of the campsite to try to be the first person to the black sand beach (in Iceland you’re rarely alone due to the shear number of tourists). Pull up, park beside the multiple cars that were already of ahead of me and there’s a nice little restaurant on site that serves lunch and even has a bathroom that you can pay to use when they are not open. PERFECT because I HAD TO GO and so did Rebe. So we mosey over to the bathroom, pull out the credit card (everywhere accepts credit card in Iceland, yes even the bathrooms) and… no. Credit card machine was down, this was a problem and a big one. Where we gonna go pee now?! Any who, time to hit the beach, no point in driving back to the campsite WAYYYY too far. Let’s see the beach and maybe this urge to relieve ourselves will go away.
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| Black Sand Beach |
We head out to the beach and it’s just an amazing beach, big black sand, huge basalt columns, pylons and rocks out in the water and waves crashing.
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| Basalt Columns |
While posing for the Rebe mandatory couple picture, I told her to go take her place and I’ll setup the tripod and we will take a picture. Before entering the beach we saw a sign that said, “Beware of Sneaker Waves.” Now at this time, we didn’t know exactly what a sneaker wave was but Rebe soon found out. I’m over at the tripod fiddling with the camera, getting the settings right, setting the timer and all of a sudden I hear a lot of cussing and complaints about cold water. Long story short, Rebe got hit by a sneaker wave… Yep, good thing was that she was wearing her waterproof boots, bad thing is that the wave was so big it filled those water tight boots. Nothing like a 40 degree foot bath at 9 in the morning. Rebe being the trooper that she is, she kept on going down the beach with soggy feet and wet socks all while still having to use the restroom, which did eventually go away.
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| Pic after the sneaker wave (see Rebe with no boots on) |
On the walk back to the car, it started to mist and then it started to rain and we were wearing half our rain gear so of course our pants were now wet in addition to Rebe’s footwear. We will call those dilemmas 1 and 2, where do you hang wet clothes in a camper van? Like I said before the van has two seats for two people for driving around and a bed in the back. Heck when we slept we had to put all the luggage in the front seats. We get in the van hang our coats on the back of the seats, which dripped on to the bed, and headed back into town to formulate a plan for all this wetness that occurred during the first hour of day 2.
It was now 10am and we were went back into town where we camped to find a swimming pool. I hear you thinking, swimming pool? In Iceland, wouldn’t that be cold and stupid? Well beside the campsites, the swimming pools are another place to clean up and shower if you want to skip on the showers at camp. I can also hear the avid backpacker/campers out there, day 2 and a shower? You’ll have to ask Rebe about this one, some stories I’m not allowed to tell on this blog :)
Fresh out of the shower and full from our PB&J sandwich we had to figure out what to do for the rest of the day in this rain. There was another section of black sand beach near the one we just left, so we back tracked and headed over there to do some exploring. This was a plateau that was along the coast with a couple of arches that had been carved from many years of the ocean beating them into submission.
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| 2nd black beach area. |
Since this wasn’t my car and I wasn’t really worried about the clutch I even let Rebe drive, and of course the 2nd area at the black beach was up this steep treacherous hill that in an automatic would was interesting. Turns that only had room for one car, so Rebe was being a little more aggressive than her normal self since she didn’t want to stop because, any rookie manual driver hates two things: stops and hills. She’s pretty good at handling the manual, just better on the long haul sections where she doesn’t have to change gears or stop :)
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| Rebe's manual driving face |
Now it was after lunch, and I was getting hangry so it was time to find some food. When driving around the country they have posted signs all over the place to inform you what is down a road whether it be hotels, hostels, swimming pools, food or even points of interest. One of these is a picture of a fork, now one would assume that seeing a sign for a fork would be that you can get a bite to eat. Here is Rebe and I driving around a rural part of Iceland looking for something other than rehydrated food to eat and these kind Icelandic people put out signs to tell us where we can find a decent meal. How nice of them. We head down one of these side roads, towards a ‘fork’ and walk into a nice hotel, no one at reception to be seen. I hear someone cleaning in the back and I give a good HELLO, nothing, and I give another slightly louder HELLO and a young man pops around the corner. I inquire about meals, and he informs me I’ll have to head back into town for a real restaurant. This was not a good option because we had just made plans to go snowmobiling on a glacier and town was out of the way, I got back in the car and headed to the next place with a fork (maybe I expected something different) and hopped out to inquire about food selection. The young lady at the next establishment informed me that the fork just means they have a kitchen. Gee thanks Iceland, really helpful.
Food was going have to be hydrated again, time to boil some water and get to it.
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| Me in the van eating lunch |
We have been snowmobiling before in Colorado and it’s a good blast of fun. An opportunity to blast around on glacier on top of a volcano would have to be just as fun right? Well, not exactly. Fresh powder snowmobiling is quite different than icy/rain snowmobiling, Rebe and I rode together and I would compare it to trying to steer a unicycle on ice. It wasn’t just point and go, it was focused
concentration just to go straight and none of that full throttle madness that I was accustomed to in Colorado.
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| Us at a stop on the snowmobile |
Either way from the base camp we got to ride up to the glacier in this kickass bus.
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| Kickass bus |
And ever wonder what the top of a volcano in Iceland looks like in the rain, I know you haven’t thought this but here you go.
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| Nothing |
On snowmobiling trips, my hands and feet tend to get cold and Rebe was complaining that her feet were wet again. This time she was smart and not wearing her hiking books, since they were already wet, she borrowed some snow boots from base camp. Well, snow boots are not worth 2 cents in the rain, and apparently my cold feet were wet too. Now we each have a wet pair of boots, Rebe with 2 pairs of wet socks and me with 1 pair of wet socks, and it was STILL RAINING. Yes we did bring a 2nd pair of shoes, water shoes nonetheless and if they got wet it was okay but we still needed this stuff to dry out at some point. I forgot to mention that in our small group snowmobiling trip we made some Australian friends on the short bus ride, I’ll mention them later.
We got back to our van and headed back to town where we had spent the previous night. We debated just staying in Vik again, but though we could cover some ground still with the little bit of daylight left in the day. Also we stopped and got Rebe some more socks since we she was down 2 wet pairs on day 2.
We continued down the coast to this former island that had been engulfed in lava to become part of Iceland. From a far it appears as this big mound off in the distance in a sea of just black sand dunes. It was really striking, and we had read about it in a tourist map we had picked up and I actually didn’t find it that interesting reading about it, but seeing it in person really changed my view of it. The pictures don’t really capture the essence of this formation.
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| Island apart of the island |
We had a cave named Hjorleifshofdi marked on the map for this ‘island’ but when driving up we found a sign with more information about the area. Apparently a guy used to live on the island alone and was buried at the top, there is a trail to the area he used to live and then around to another interesting spot up top. We arrived at the the island just past sunset and debated to do the hike to the top which would take more than an hour round trip, and there was still a light mist in the air and did we really want to get MORE wet. No, is the correct answer. We decided to visit the cave on the other side of the island, and then we would move on to our next camp site for the night.
The camp for the night was to be at a canyon called Fjadrargljufur (not a campsite) and there was a bathroom and a parking lot, I mean what else does a camper need? We are heading to the parking lot down this paved road that had seen better days, max 25mph due to pothole and ruts and we are following another car to the area. They pull in to park, as do we, and we get out to start setting up for the night. The other car, starts to setup but then they change their mind about this spot. I guess Rebe and I in our panel van are a bit too scary for them. They bounce, Rebe and I go to bed. Soon as we turn the lights out we hear another vehicle pull into the lot for camp. Yay, we are not the only bad people.
Sunday September 9th - Canyons, Glaciers and Waterfalls, Oh My
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| 3 hours of driving |
Night at the unseen canyon was uneventful, well beside Rebe again complaining about how cold it was in her sleeping bag. I opened the shade of the van to look out through the fogged up windows and see another 5 cars had already arrived in the parking lot. I get dressed and hop out to take a few pictures while Rebe is getting dressed and the area was just jaw dropping.
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| Fjadrargljufur |
There is a trail that runs along the canyon for multiple views in, and even a trail into the canyon but it was closed due to the water level into the canyon. And no one really wants to walk through glacier runoff this early in the morning anyway.
After the hike, we came back to make breakfast, pack up and hit the road. The plan was to head to the Vatnajokull National Park, yes the country that looks like a National Park everywhere actually has areas deemed as National Parks. While driving we continued our research of other cool things on the way to the National Park, we found another little waterfall that we would just stop at and give a look.
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| Systrafoss |
Systrafoss is the waterfall we found, and there was a short hike up a STEEP hill to get to the top of it where we could look back over the valley we just drove through and a beautiful lake at the top.
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| Rebe cresting the hill |
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| Lake at the top of hill that feeds waterfall |
With our waterfall quota for the day met, we then continued the beautiful drive to Vatnajokull National Park. This national park is centered around the largest ice cap on the island and contains the 3rd largest glacier in the world behind Antartica and another in Argentina (according to one of our tour guides). The park has a large campsite and many trails to explore while in the area. Our first hike in the park was to the foot of the Skaftafellsjokull Glacier, it was an easy flat walk from the visitor center. It’s really tough from a far to tell how large these glaciers really are and I’ll have pictures later in the blog and more detail.
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| Skaftafellsjokull Glacier |
Another one of the hikes that we did while in the park was up to, yep you guessed it, another waterfall. This one is called Svartifoss and it’s another one of the famous waterfalls that you see all over Iceland blogs. It’s one of the most scenic waterfalls, as the water rushes over an edge surrounded by these perfectly sculpted black basalt columns and it’s set back in this downhill canyon. And it’s a helluva hike to get to, uphill 80% of the way and probably a good 40 minutes to get to but once you get to the top of the hill, well top of the final hill you’re rewarded with a great view that refuels you and helps you make it to the end.
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| Svaritfoss from afar |
And then you can get closer and see all the detail surrounding the falls.
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| Svaritfoss up close |
While on the path we passed by our Aussie friends we had made the day before, they were going down the hill as we were going up and of course they were laughing and smiling as Rebe and I huffed and puffed up the hill oblivious to whether we recognize any of our previous encounters. On the return trip from the waterfall, Rebe and I were discussing what we were going to do next. There is a famous glacier lagoon where icebergs break off and they take boats right up to the large floating ice. Not knowing what day we would get to the area, we were hesitant to pre-book anything for fear that we couldn’t get there in time or would get there a day early. We gave the operator a call on the way back from the waterfall to see if they had any spots and luckily they did. Now we had a couple of hours to get to the location and a bit of time to see a few more things along the way.
We exited the main area of the National Park and found another side road that led to the face of another glacier. Drove down another rut filled road, probably the roughest thus far on the trip. Hopped out the van, stuck our still wet hiking boots on the roof of the van so they might dry a bit more. I forgot to mention that while we were driving at this point we had our wet socks and other wet clothes hanging out the window and flapping in the wind to assist in the drying process which did indeed help. Problem with boots is that you can’t just hang those out the window without fear of the string breaking and then REALLY being shoeless.
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| 2nd Glacier |
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| Icebergs that had broken off from glacier |
Funny thing about the iceberg in the 2nd pic, it’s a lot bigger and much further away than it appears. As a feat of strength and to see how close it was I decided to throw a rock at it and a good size one, you know one with some heft for maximum distance. Oooooo buddy, if that iceberg was 100 yards away it looked like I threw the rock 15 yards so of course the first attempt wasn’t full force, so I gave it another go. I might have thrown this one what looked like 20 yards… Rebe and I had a really good laugh at that.
Back to the car and back to the main road and more spectacular views where you just want to stop every 5 minutes but we would never make it to around the island, and better yet not to our appointment at the glacier lagoon. We did stop at another glacier tongue that was right next to the glacier lagoon.
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| ANOTHER GLACIER |
We cross a tiny little bridge and there’s a packed parking lot of cars, duck boats and people walking around in suits looking like they are about to go snowmobiling. We had arrived to our destination of glacier lagoon and it was an apt description of the location as there was a giant glacier at the back of the lagoon and iceberg every shape and every size in the lagoon in front of the glacier. While standing in line to get suited up in our gumby suits that would keep us warm in case the zodiac boat capsized, we ran into our Aussie friends once again and they were going to be on our tour with us, all of this completely unplanned. We then walked to our boat and got out on the water to see the icebergs up close. The amphibious boats (duck boats) are limited to the icebergs that are close to the boat dock and can’t make it to the back of the lagoon but the smaller more quick zodiacs we were on could zoom around the entire lagoon and see it all. We even made it to the back of the lagoon which was a good 5 miles deep and right up to the face of the glacier where we got to wait to see if a large chunk of the glacier would fall off while we were close. Unfortunately no large pieces decided to part while we were watching, but I did get a couple of good pics of the ‘bergs floating in the lagoon.
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| Us in our floatation suits |
We were the last tour of the day and still a good ways from where we would make camp. Got on to the road and made our way to Höfn, we were going to try and find a secret place to camp but couldn’t find a good location so we camped with the masses at the local campsite in town. We were also tired of rehydrated food so we ventured in to the ONE restaurant in town and there was a 30-40 minute wait so we skipped on that and headed to the gas station. Yes, Iceland is famous for their hotdogs…that they import. We were skeptical of the gas station hotdogs, but they turned out to be really good and I’m a little mad at myself for only getting one that night.
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| Hot dog, YES it was better than it looked or maybe we were just hungry |
Monday September 10th - Mountains, Driving (a lot) along the coast and of course more Waterfalls.
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| 5 hours of driving |
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| View from the campsite in Höfn |
The city of Höfn is on a peninsula and not really on any trip plans, and it is the last big town before covering a lot of road and getting up to the north. Soon as we were up, we were eating breakfast and getting on the road, luckily the first stop was very close to where we made camp. But before we got to camp we passed a couple of Icelandic horses.
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| Rebe and the horses |
We arrived at the Viking Inn, which happens to be another place we could have camped for the night. We saw the signs, but the road was very rutty and there was another sign that stated it was a private road. We didn’t want to press our luck at night so we played it safe and went in to Höfn like I previously described. The Viking Inn is located on a point of black sand boxed in by beautiful mountains named the Vestrahorn.
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| Vestrahorn along the coast |
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| Vestrahorn along the coast |
Also in the area of the Vestrahorn is a viking village, while we were there we thought this was an actual former viking village but upon further research I have learned it was a movie set… Sorta of takes the wind out of my sails, but it was still cool to walk around. Also in the area was a lighthouse, a set of black sand dunes and a rocky beach over looking the sea, a really picturesque area of Iceland that I think it is skipped by a lot of tourists.
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| Black Sand and the Vestrahorn |
From the Vestrahorn we headed along the coast and to the north, and what a wonderful coast to drive this was.
Road was hugging the coast and you have to pay attention to the road because the views are so amazing that it is really distracting.
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| Along the coast |
And the ring road continues on and on and on along the coast just repeating itself with beautful views, but in an attempt to save some time and mileage we took a short cut up a 17% grade…did I mention it was raining and a bit twisty. Even I was a bit worried at the route but after a large motorhome passed me coming down the hill, I figured we would be okay going up the hill.
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| Waterfall on the pass over the mountain (note the clouds at the top of the image) |
See the clouds in the above picture, the road we were taking kept raising, so much so that we ended up going through those clouds and beyond. And even on this half dirt half gravel road there were still many great sites to see and I would imagine there would be even more if it was not such a cloudy day. More waterfalls, sheep, a bit of mud then back to the interior of the island for a change of scenery.
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| Notice who's holding the camera this time :) |
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| "Hope they don't expect me to wash this thing..." |
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| Valley at the top of the pass |
The final destination for the day was to be a trio of waterfalls, but we were really running up against the sunlight and whether we would actually get there in day light. We exited off the main road and down another gravel road, and this was a rough, rough gravel road. So rough that we probably never got over 40mph down the road, but we eventually got to the parking lot for the waterfall and started the hike. The first waterfall, Dettioss, was maybe 10 minutes from the parking lot, down a nicely marked trail but with a few large rocks to bound over. A big classic waterfall, not sure if it was worth driving down that rutty ass road but still cool enough.
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| View looking away from Dettifoss (downstream) |
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| The Powerful Dettifoss |
The second waterfall, Selfoss, was a 1 mile hike from the first waterfall and still it was getting darker and darker by the minute. Rebe and I started huffing it to get to the next one before it was pitch black out and like the idiots we are we left our flashlights in the car…too excited and suffering from FOMO. Well it was Rebe and I and another photographer and his friend, all 4 of us bounding over rocks trying to get to this waterfall. I feared that when we got there it would be a trickle but boy was I wrong, I might have a new favorite I’ll let you see for yourself.
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| Selfoss |
It is the horseshoe of a waterfall with water just streaming down in all areas, even and calm. I wish I could have sat there for a couple of hours just mesmerized by it but we had to get back to the van because it was getting really dark now and the clouds/fog were rolling in. Remember I mentioned this was a trio of waterfalls, well the third one was going to have to wait until tomorrow as it was late and foggy and the parking lot was looking like camp. Rebe and I weren’t the only people with the idea of camping in this parking lot, we were joined by another 5 vehicles, some regular cars and others vans like ours.
Tuesday September 11th - Fog, Geothermal Features, Volcanoes, Lakes, A Hot Tub and a stroll down a path.
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| 2.5 Hours of driving |
We woke up still with our crew of illegal campers and no park rangers in sight, oh I guess I forgot to mention we were in another national park. Good thing we went to see the waterfalls the previous night because we woke to an even thicker fog in the morning and the outlook for the seeing the 3rd waterfall wasn’t looking good.
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| Fog at the parking lot at Dettifoss |
We drove to the 3rd waterfall, Hafragilsfoss, and like we expected it was fogged out. We ate breakfast and planned the rest of our day. The plan was to head over to the Lake Myvatn area which is known for its geothermal features and volcanoes and just all around beauty and figure out the rest when we get there (like we usually do, one day this lack of planning will get us but not yet).
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| Hafragilsfoss through the fog |
We shortly arrived at the geothermal area, which is similar to a section of Yellowstone National Park where there are hot springs, features blowing sulfur smelling steam and mud pots. It was a two level area, a lower floor then features up a VERY steep hill. Being the adventurers we are we headed up the stupid steep hill and of course we get half way up to the top and the rain machine starts up. Since we didn’t want to end up rolling down the hill we made our way back down safely to see the rest of the features.
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| Thermal Features, the trail up the hill is in the left side of the image. Trust me it's steeper than it appears |
Leaving the features we headed to a cave that used to be an area where people would bath/soak in the hot spring, but after a seismic event the water temperature became too hot for the public to enjoy the cave pool.
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| Cave of John Snow and Ygritte |
Next we ventured over to area where a volcano, Hverfjall, had erupted quite a while ago and left a large cider cone. When I say large, from a distance it looks like a good hill but from up close it's a tad more intimidating and it stands around 1300 feet tall and is more than a mile across at it's base. Not knowing I guessed it was more than a mile around the top edge while we were walking around the top, turns out it's more than two miles in circumference. From the top there are beautiful views of the surrounding area and of Lake Mývatn.
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| Hverfjall |
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| View of Lake Mývatn from the top of the volcano |
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| Walking Path atop |
After trudging up and down a dormant volcano we thought it was time to take a rest and visit the Mývatn Nature Baths. Everyone who we told we were going to Iceland asked, "Are you going to Blue Lagoon, you have to go it's so cool?" No we weren't going to Blue Lagoon, Blue Lagoon is so close to Reykjavík that it's damn near a tourist trap, what people do not know is in the Lake Mývatn area there is a just as good if not better similar experience at Mývatn Nature Baths.
For those of you who don't know what Blue Lagoon or Mývatn Nature Baths are, they are both man made 'pools' that are supplied with water from the thermal area in which they sit. The water is filled with minerals and alkaline that is great for bathing and bad for bacterial growth. And to top it all off, the views surrounding the pool overlook the lake so it's relaxing and fun.
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| Mývatn Nature Baths |
The pool has two large areas, which you can make out in the image above the hottest areas are around 41C (105F) and are to the left of the image and the cooler areas are to the right of the image 37C (98F). We had a great time relaxing and also gave us a chance to shower in the spa facility.
The day was still young so after our relaxing dip in the bath, we headed around the lake to an area named Höfði. We really had no idea of what to expect in Höfði as it was not really described well in any of the blogs or maps we were looking at, but was just described as a scenic trail or walking area. The trail was amazing, it was like walking through a fairy tale and even more so because it was a "choose your own adventure" walking trail. You could take any path and it would lead you back to the main path or back to the exit, which was a bit confusing since there were no signs to trail maps but it did pique our curiosity and lead us to taking random turns to see what was around the next corner or over the next hill.
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| Trail at Höfði |
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| View of Lake Mývatn from the trail at Höfði |
It was now dinner time and like most cities or rather towns in Iceland, there are not many choices but the choices that are available are usually pretty decent (don't know why I say this, we didn't eat out THAT many times). Regardless, another of our friends who had visited the area suggested this place called Vogafjós Cowshed Cafe. Now if you're like me the last place you imagine eating a meal is in a cow shed or barn but this place was packed and even had people waiting to be seated and probably for one of two reasons. One, it was either an amazing place to eat or two it was the only place worth eating in town. Well it turned out the be both and we had some of the most amazing lamb we ever had, now you must take this with a pound of salt because we had be subjecting ourselves to PB&J and rehydrated food thus far on the trip.
We holed up at local campsite this night, along with all the other camper vans and tent dwellers and called it a night.
Wednesday September 12th - Volcanic stuff, A Beer Bath, More Waterfalls (a secret one), and the Search for the Northern Lights
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| 7.5 hours of driving |
The campsite was still in the Lake Mývatn area, and it was just amazing morning to wake up. Me being the earlier riser I got up and took a few pictures of camp and the surround area while Rebe slept in.
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| Camp and the surrounding area (no, we didn't sleep in the tent) |
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| Camp and the surrounding area |
We had one thing left to see in the area, and after breakfast we headed up to the Skútustaðagrigar, or pseudo-craters. Pseudo-craters form when lava flows over water or wetlands and the water gets trapped under the lava and starts boiling. Pressure causes explosions and steams rushes to the surface leaving these unique structures. The area is now farm land for grazing sheep, but the farmer is nice enough to allow visitors to enjoy the trail as long as they don't bother the sheep aka don't chase them down.
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| A farmer owns the land and grazes his sheep on the psuedo craters |
It was time to leave the the beautiful lake area, but first we must stop our regularly scheduled programming for another waterfall. This time the stop was at Goðafoss, known as the place where the Icelandic people threw their pagan statutes when the country converted to Christianity and so the name means God Falls. Another spectacular waterfall, found again walking distance from the main ring road.
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| Goðafoss |
As usual our plans for the day were not really flushed out. No worry, we'd figure something out. In the mean time, there were a few things to see along the route... did I say see, I meant drink. We headed up one of the northern peninsulas to 1) see the sights and 2) check out a brewery. You all know by now that I'm weak for beer, unless it's a pilsner then I can skip that horse piss. Destination was set for the Bruggsmiðjan brewery and after a hour or two of coastal driving we pulled up to an empty-ish parking lot ready to drink (well, I was at least). We walked in the front door didn't see any one, walked up the stairs... didn't see any one. Hmmm, small town Iceland should have expected not to see people so let's go back downstairs. "Hey Rebe, I don't see any bars or serving stations around here," I say. "I don't either," she says to me. "I don't think they serve beer here, and we probably should find another place," I tell her. We get back to the door we came in and there is a worker taking a smoke break and we inquire about getting an actual beer. "Oh no, we don't serve beer (silly Americans) but you can go to the beer spa around the corner and catch a pint." Now I don't know about you but I'm not really interested in bathing in beer, especially after the day before we had a nice relaxing bath in true spa water. We drove around the corner to check out the spa establishment and it turned out to be a really, really nice facility.
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| Beer Spa and Restaurant |
More than just a beer spa, there is a bar and restaurant. I honestly believe the "beer" spa is really just a gimmick to get tourist in the door because why else would you be in the section of Iceland. It's not on the main ring road and there's no other reason to be in this area, but if you do happen to find yourself in Iceland on day 6 or 7 and need a place to eat and a few more coast roads to drive then I highly recommend the Bjórböðin Spa & Restaurant. Good beer, great fish and chips (don't care what the Brits say you can find good fish and chips outside the UK).
Now the spa is a beautiful facility, where you can soak in beer (minus the alcohol) which is wonderful for your skin (supposedly) all while you drink the local beer from the brewery from around the corner. They probably give you access to the shower facility and all that jazz but I wasn't really digging soaking in beer water.
From here we continued around the coast, admiring the sights all the while trying to discover where to stop next. While on the road we discovered a hidden waterfall a tad off the beaten path and next to this waterfall was an even more secret natural hot tub (didn't take a pic of folks in the hot tub as I was trying to respect people privacy as some were in there underwear). Some of these waterfalls are just on farmer's land and I guess they just have provisions to allow the public in to enjoy the beauty of the country. I am really trying to imagine something like this working in Texas, I fear there would be a couple of shooting deaths per year due to trespassing.
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| Reykjafoss |
Near the waterfall there was a cool church so we drove over there to check it out along with a few houses with grass on the roof.
While viewing the houses and church we warmed up dinner and discussed a sleeping plan for the night. Should we stay near here? Was not much else to see in the area, and was considered the "boring" part of Iceland. Hmmm how about the Northern Lights? How's this area looking for clouds tonight? (Iceland has a great and highly accurate weather service that shows cloud coverage and also has a predictor for the strength of the aurora activity). We consulted the
weather website and of course the area we were in was just going to be completely covered by clouds tonight (even though it was completely clear skies at the time). We wanted to head west...how far west would we need to go? About 3 hours worth, and apparently during our discussion of this plan I swore Rebe told me 2 hours so of course 2 hours into the drive inquired to see how much further we needed to go and she said, "about an hour" and my heart sank. Again this was the boring part of Iceland so driving at night it wasn't like we were really missing a great deal of things but it was definitely a haul from where we were.
We drove past the turn for the Snorrastadir camp, because Google doesn't know where the hell anything is at 1030 at night. Pulled a U-ey and got into the campsite, as with most camps you have to pay to camp and this place was no different but it operated on the honor system. They had a sign on the front door that basically said if you arrive after 7pm don't knock, don't ring the doorbell but just come back and see us in the morning, welcome and enjoy your stay. Fair enough, park and hit the hay.
This crazy drive was all for a chance to see the Northern Lights, we set an alarm for 1am when the clouds were supposed to be clear. I got out of my sleeping bag, and peeked my head out of the van and glanced at the sky and man did it look hazy out. But these hazy clouds seemed to be moving really really fast for clouds, hmmm. Well I'm awake now and might as well get the camera out and see what I see. Rebe meanwhile stayed in the van, but opened the sliding door to get herself a good view of these hazy clouds.
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| Aurora (duh) |
Now I will admit the camera gives the lights a lot more color than we could see this night but it was still very cool to see them clearly and in action.
Thursday September 13th - Cliffs, Beaches, Mountains, Some Good Food, a Crowded Waterfall and a Familiar Camp (and more Northern Lights)
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| 3.5 Hours of Driving |
Another fine beautful morning in Iceland, sun was shining, clouds were gone and its always amazing to pull into a place at night and to be surprised by what you couldn't see at night. We got up, paid the camp site owner (farmer) and then got on our merry way. He even accepted credit card at his front door, had a little machine and everything. Just bonkers. This camp also had a kitchen (fork) where campers leave unused food. We grabbed some free Nutella, raspberry jam, and some bread. Later in the trip we would make some peanut butter, Nutella, jelly sandwiches which turned out much better than expected.
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| View leaving camp |
The plan for the day was to see the west coast of Iceland but specifically the Snæfellsjökull peninsula (at least that's what I'm calling it). This is another one of those sections of Iceland that just has so much beauty but packed into a dense region.
First stop was to the Gerðuberg Cliffs, these random basalt columns just popping up out some poor farmers land. Again, just random tourist driving onto your property to stare at a wall, while we were staring at the cliffs we decided to eat our rehydrated breakfast.
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| Gerðuberg Cliffs |
Next stop was the Ytri Tunga, which is a beach where harbor seals like to hang out. Lucky for us, there were 3 or 4 playing in the water off in the distance and 2 others just posted up right off the coast. I guess they didn't want to be surrounded by humans so they just balance on rocks to stay warm.
From here we headed west towards the end of the peninsula, where we stopped in the village of Arnarstapi. This little coastal village has some great coastal views and unique terrain with a couple of arches that have been created from years and years of coastal erosion from the water.
While walking along the coast, we discover there was a walking path through a lava field that was created by the towering Snæfellsjökull. The path leads to the other village, Hellnar, which is less than a mile way. After our walk to Hellnar, we headed back to Arnarstapi and continued on our journey but not without eating some PB&J out the back of the van.
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| Lava Field |
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| Arch Hellnar |
From here we headed into Snæfellsjökull National Park, what's in the park besides its namesake volcano? Dunno, but we'll find out. As we drive in there is a parking lot of to the left with a bunch of cars, so we follow suit because one never want to suffer from FOMO. We park and head up the trail to see what's the deal.
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| Londrangar |
This was truly an amazing coastline, we sat at the viewpoint for 10 minutes and just soaked it in. From Londrangar we headed down the road to the visitor center to learn more about the park, there are many miles of trails in the park and if we had more time we probably would explore a few of them but with so much more of the peninsula (and island) to see we had to keep the van moving. Next stop was another black sand beach that we viewed from the top, just taking in the sights and watching all the non-American tourist jump over the ropes the Icelandic government put up to protect the vegetation. As we sat on the bench we watched others just climb over the ropes, and I would kindly remind them that the ropes are up for a reason and some would then come back and others we're like "I've climbed the Alps, this isn't dangerous." It's not about danger you dumbass...
We continued down the road, down to the next site which was Saxhóll, another volcanic crater that is able to be climbed. Much smaller than Hverfjall which we hiked back at Lake Myvatn and the view would have been even more spectacular if the low clouds hadn't been covering the top of the volcano.
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| Saxholl |
We had now finished all of the park that we could really do in a day and we continued on down the road to see, you may have guessed it MORE WATERFALLS. Yeah, Iceland has a few. This time it was Svödufoss. Probably one of the lesser known ones but I'd say this one was probably my 2nd favorite after Selfoss. The waterfall was maybe a mile from the main road, and then another mile from the parking lot and the fall is very visible from the parking lot. And again this was on a farmers land and he just let's people roam his property and enjoy the waterfall. I mentioned this was one of the lesser known waterfalls and while we were there for 20 minutes or so, there was only one other visitor. I was setup with my tripod, framing and taking pictures when another guy walked up. He walked up and said "Taking pictures?" I replied "Yep, isn't this place amazing" and then we ventured off some small talk and he asked where I was from, so I said Texas. Most foreigners know Texas for some reason but not Houston, but apparently he knew Texas so I told him Houston. I then inquired to where he was from he. He blew my mind and said he was the local farmer, I swore he had a German accent or something but he then went on to tell me that he came to check whether his guys cut the grass around the walkway and they had. He then left after showing us the path up to the top of the waterfall after you ford the river.
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| Svödufoss |
Next stop was to be the famous Kirkjufell Mountain, I'm sure you've seen it and according to Icelandic tourist guides/maps it is the most photographed mountain in Iceland. Coming from what felt like the least visited waterfall to the most visited, don't know why I felt like there would be only a few people at the site but it was crawling with photographers. Now my images might not show it but there were easily 30 tripods out and every inch of real estate was taken by some photographer trying to get the ultimate shot. Now that everyone has a camera and a phone, it seems like there are very few original photos anymore but to me it really isn't about the original photo it's about the experience of taking the photo and catching that magical moment. There's no magic in a crowd, so after snapping a few photos Rebe and I went to dinner.
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| Kirkjufell Mountain and Waterfall |
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| Kirkjufell Mountain |
Dinner was at Bjargarsteinn, yes it was expensive but again another amazing meal in a tiny restaurant. The lady next to us ordered the fermented shark and described it as cheese-like... hmmmk. After dinner we decided to head back to the place we stayed the night before, Snorraadir since it was probably the closest and we had been there before so we knew what to expect. AND there was another chance to see the Northern Lights.
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| Night 2 at Snorraadir Aurora |
Friday September 14th - Hot Spring, A Waterfall and a BIG Hole
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| 3.5 Hours of Driving |
If you've been paying attention to the map images, you can see now that we've come full circle around the island. And this morning we truly were clueless about what to do for the day, we knew we were leaving the peninsula and toward Reykjavik. While waiting for Rebe to wake up as usual I got up did a bit of research to see what I could find. First thing I found was thermal feature and then I found another waterfall (shocking I know).
First stop was the thermal feature Deildartunguhver, well it turned out to be a hot spring, river thingie. There was also a geothermal plant located next the feature along with a spa that I assume used the heat from the thermal feature to warm the spa baths, but the spa was not like Blue Lagoon or the Lake Myvatn Spa as it had no large outdoor areas.
Video of Deildartunguhver
A short distance from Deildartunguhver, was Hraunfossar. This was a waterfall but not one in the usual sense. There is a river that runs through a lava field but next to the river is a crack in the lava field where water emerges. My explanation is probably bad so here's a pic.
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| Hraunfossar |
While at the waterfall we decided to take a nap in the van, just because we could.
While on the road to the first two sights of they day, Rebe was researching while I was driving and she found this tour called "
Inside the Volcano." The tour consists of a hike and then a trip into a former volcanic magma chamber, truly unique experience. I just couldn't cosign the price for the tour so I kept shooting Rebe down on this idea. Then we found another cave tour, and this happens to be the longest lava tube in Iceland and the tour was a much better deal AND in the area we were already in. Rebe called and we were able to get in for the last tour of the day.
The tour started at the small visitors center with a walk to the cave, now the cave wasn't the stereotypical cave in the side of a mountain but rather a giant hole in the ground. The company built stairs and a walkway for the tour and it was used for the majority of the tour.
The Cave is a lave tube, formed when lave from an eruption just bores its way through the landscape. The outside of the lava cools and the interior of the lava continues to flow thus leaving a cave until the lava stops flowing.
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| Entrance into the Lava Flow Cave |
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| Cave Pic |
At the end of the tour we spoke with our tour guide about what to do for our last day in Iceland, should we spend the entire last day in Reykjavik or was there something else we had missed. He mentioned Thingvellir National Park which was directly south of where we currently were and on the way back to Reykjavik. Seemed like a no brainer that we should go to the National Park, but what really is there to see? Well for one the park contains the largest natural lake in Iceland, waterfalls, and unique canyons. Even the drive in the late evening was amazing into the park.
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| En route to Thingvellir National Park |
We settled on a campsite on the lakeshore that was pretty empty, only one or two other camper vans were in the area. I took a few pictures at the lakeshore before we settled down and made dinner. We made some new Spanish friends while at the campsite telling them about our efforts to see the Northern Lights and they told us that they had not seen them yet while in Iceland. With dinner finished and the sun going down we headed to bed. Just as we were about to close up shop I spotted the aurora just after sunset. It wasn't even fully dark out and it was brighter than we had seen over the past two nights. Our Spanish friends were in for the night and not out seeing this show, Rebe went over (literally banged on the side of their camper van) and told them the lights were out, and two minutes later they were back out and over with us taking pictures of the light show. The intensity was strongest in the first hour and then it faded to levels it could barely be seen, just goes to show you never know when it will be the best.
Saturday September 15th - Thingvellir National Park and an Reykjavik Pub
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| 1.5 hours of driving |
Thingvellir National Park holds a special place in Icelandic history, it is the place where for centuries the Icelandic government met and held session before becoming a commonwealth of Norway and Denmark in the 1800s.
There are many things to see in the park, main feature from the visitors center is a rift valley that marks the edge of the Eurasian Tectonic Plate and the North American Tectonic Plate. This long ago used to be the main road into the park until a bit of seismic activity shifted the plates and a section of the road gave way. Also in the park is the famous Silfra Fissure, the one place inland on Iceland that is swarmed with scuba divers and snorklers. No, we didn't actually dive in the fissure because you have to be dry suit certified which we aren't because we always dive in warm water. The last big feature (on the walking path, but not in the park) was the Öxarárfoss or waterfall of the Öxará river.
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| Where the Tectonic Plates Meet |
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| Silfra Fissure (note the divers entering to the right) |
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| Where the Icelandic Govt. originally met |
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| Öxarárfoss |
After leaving the park we headed to our last stop which was the capital city of Reykjavik, there really isn't a lot of tourist activity in Reykjavik so our plan was to eat dinner and see the famous church that was in town but not before catching another nap in our camper van.
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| Hallgrimskirkja |
After dinner we went over to a campsite that was near where we had to return the camper van, this way we didn't have to wake up extra early and drive to return the van and have plenty of time to get to the airport. The campsite was like any other campsite, but it was not run by anyone... There is a hostel onsite where campers can sleep, eat and bathe but apparently no one runs the outdoor portion for the camper vans so we got a free night of camping. It was really weird but not going to complain about a free spot to sleep.
The next morning we returned the camper van, walked a mile to catch our shuttle to the airport and flew back home.
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