(Lin) By the time we woke up this morning, most of the campground had emptied out – people were likely off to early flights. A few of us showered and I made a breakfast of sautéed potatoes and ham (the potatoes slices were frozen, purchased a few days ago), plus Skyr (delicious yogurt) and cereal and hot chocolate. It was a gorgeous day — sad to be leaving with such good hiking weather!
We eventually pulled out around 10 am and performed the usual flush out and fill up before stopping by the gas station to top off the diesel before heading back to the rental company, Camper Iceland. There we spent nearly an hour repacking all of our suitcases (that we had left at the company’s office) and cleaning the entire van. Somehow it felt like we had more than we came with, despite eating most of the snacks and food we had brought from home. The rental company kindly provided a ride to the airport, and soon we were through security, etc., and eventually on the airplane for a 5 hour or so flight to Boston. As we took off, we got a gorgeous distant view of the Snæfellsjökull glacier on Snaefellsnes Peninsula, where we had just spent the last few days. We all wished it had been that clear the whole time we were there, but alas — you get the weather Iceland gives!
Ace was delighted to see us again (he stayed with a kind neighbor), and of course our usual beds will feel nice again, but we all noticed how much our eyes were bugging out with the huge living space of our house compared with the relatively small campervan quarters! It’s funny what you can get used to so quickly.
We’ve done a number of family trips together, including two bigger road trips (one in the US for five weeks, and one in Europe for three weeks), but this one ranks up there for a number of reasons. The campervan made it special and was a standout experience, one that we would do again in a heartbeat. But the incredible diversity of Iceland’s landscapes was truly unique – I’m not sure you can get everything from lavascapes to glaciers to fjords to green mossy cliffs to open beautiful highlands to rugged coastal views to black sand beaches all in one small area anywhere else in the world. It’ll be good to return to our normal lives in Rhode Island, but this was really an amazing experience.
This morning we had a lazy start, with everyone sleeping in far later than expected. Dad was up early (again) and this time retreated to the campground kitchen / dining area to make his coffee and work on pictures, the blog, and emails. He texted the family group chat around 8 am and asked to be let known when people woke up. He received no response to this, as most of us began to wake up around 9:30 am, if I recall correctly. We had stayed at Hellissandur Camping, which provided beautiful views last night, but was foggy and a bit overcast today.
After finally getting our things together and eating a common breakfast of cereal, oatmeal, hot chocolate, and whatever scraps we could find in the camper, we set off on a day of driving. We started in Hellissandur, which is known for its cultural features along the main roads. Numerous murals were spotted, ranging in topic from Icelandic wildlife such as arctic foxes and whales, to popular celebrities. We continued our tour through the town of Rif and along the winding coastal road to Kirkjufell. As feared, the mountain (and other surrounding mountains) was now shrouded in a cloud, making us glad we had hiked the night before!!. We snapped a few pics and then continued to the town of Grundarfjörður, perched on water and in Kirkjufell’s shadow. The architecture here is so interesting, with mostly very simplistic shapes, and saturated colorings. We saw lots of sheep and horses, as usual.
Our first hike of the day was to a fun waterfall named Grundarfoss, which included a scramble of rocks to get closer, as we always do. It had a nice, flat walk for most of it, which had a clear view of the waterfall the entire time, with a field full of horses to our right, and a mountainous wall covered with low-hanging clouds to our left. Elliot had to run back to the camper to take a life-altering poop, while the rest of us enjoyed a peaceful walk back. Dad flew his drone a bit as well, for one of the last times here! We saw that people were feeding and petting some of the horses, so most of us went over to join them in feeding the horses grass. One of them was trying to eat our hands and had big lips with a great personality. We decided to eat lunch there, too – a gourmet meal of lamb sandwiches!! Dad had gotten two lamb steaks at a grocery store a few days ago, and since we needed to empty the fridge, he decided to cook them for lunch instead. They were delicious.
Upon our departure from the waterfall, we decided to make one more stop, at Landbrotalaug Hot Springs. It required going back the roughest dirt and gravel road we have seen yet, and a short walk to a shallow lagoon that was fed by boiling hot spring water. Only Dad and I opted to bathe – the bottom was muddy and silty, but the water was deliciously warm. After a half hour or so, we trekked back to the camper and took showered off before hitting the road again.
Almost all of us promptly fell asleep as we began our longer drive back to Reykjavik. Many naps were taken during our daily driving, despite rather incredible scenery outside! Elliot and Mom are competing for most hours napped in the camper while on the road. As we approached Reykjavik, I saw Icelandic traffic for the first time— certainly an unusual sight, I would think, but we were arriving during rush hour. We all but ended our trip where we began, at Costco! It was funny to be back in the same spot where we started, as suddenly the past two weeks felt like a fever dream. Some of us wandered around Costco for a bit before ultimately not buying much other than an early pre-dinner. Others went into the nearby BONUS, where we loaded up on Icelandic goodies, including a large amount of candy.
To finish our driving for today and to make tomorrow a little bit easier, we pulled into Sandgerði Airport Camping. It’s a very compact camping ground, with small lots packed into rows. It has a nice sitting area, with a spot for people to leave unused groceries and pantry goods, as most people here are wrapping up their time in Iceland. We had a final dinner of pasta, chicken, and broccoli. We somehow got through our nearly 7 pound bag of pasta! We’re now (hopefully) settling down for bed soon, as I personally am quite drained. Our time here has been packed full of fun and exciting things, but I’m always grateful for these slower days in between. zzzzzzz
(Jo) Today a long but rather incredible day — perhaps a favorite for Lin and some of the kids. We woke up to some low clouds but more clearing and hints of sunshine that gave us hope. Our campsite was still pretty muddy so we had a little excitement trying to get out of our spot this morning with some spinning tires. Most campgrounds here are just big fields, and some have vaguely marked individual sites. Fortunately, Lin figured out the camper handled the mud better in reverse and so we could just back across the field to the road that looped around it.
We drove a few minutes to the Hellnar Coastal Walk, which was about 2.5 kilometers along a very diverse coastal landscape of cliffs and lava formations. Eden decided to run it, so we met her as she came back. The sun was coming out, and it felt very warm – most of us were wearing no jackets at all. The trail led to a lovely cafe where we had some waffles with rhubarb jam and cream and Skyr cake before retracing our steps back to the camper. There were lots of overlooks along the way, amazing rock formations and arches, and large colonies of seagulls. And there were crow berries galore. Eden picked a whole ziplock bag full! And Kieran was a good global citizen and picked up a significant amount of trash along the route.
We then headed into Snæfellsjökull National Park, one of three national parks in the country (and we hit them all on this trip!). We wanted to picnic so we drove to another overlook by the sea and ate our picnic lunch by the camper before hiking the short distance to take in the views of the coasts and several rock formations in the distance.
Then we headed off the main road to a small volcano, Hólahólar, that we could drive right into. We were the only people there and it was a lovely green setting. We all ran up the slope and then made our ways back down, some attempting to roll part of the way—not recommended! It was very steep! Lin flew the drone since there was no one around and no wildlife to disturb.
Snæfellsjökull National Park is perched on the west end of Snaefellsnes Peninsula, and there is one main paved road that does a semicircle through the park, roughly paralleling the coastline, and going around the central mountain feature and glacier. As the day progressed, we were able to see more and more of the mountain and glacier at the top.
Our next stop was the Saxholl Crater, which was easy to drive to. There were also metal stairs that led to the top, with some walking paths at the top, too. The kids were in peak silly mode for some reason.
We decided to head away from the coast a bit and try an inland hike, the Raudholl trail. Lin and Eden both have the AllTrails app, which allows them to look for nearby hikes. Lin thinks there should be one for fosses (waterfalls) in Iceland, too. To get to Raudholl, we needed drive back an F road which we decided to attempt even though F roads are supposed to be regulated for 4-wheel drive vehicles only. Lin had read it wasn’t too bad so we went for it and lived to tell about it. The road was pretty rough and rocky but really not impassable for the camper. Raudholl was yet another volcano / crater hike — under 2 miles total but so scenic and only a couple of other people visible from a distance. We hiked up and around the crater, but with huge mountains looming over us, which was cool. Oodles of crowberries and blueberries once again! They serve as a pretty consistent ground cover all over but are only a couple of inches high—definitely not the blueberry bushes we are used to seeing at home!
From there, we drove out of the national park to a short hike to another pretty waterfall—Svudafoss. The hike was delayed by a pole near the parking lot where most of the family tested their strength as they attempted to human flag (hold your body out horizontally using only your hands/arms—it is harder than you think!). Most were successful for at least a split second! The hike to the falls had a nice raised metal grate pathway through the fields. The only thing disturbing the peace was a trio of local teen boys on their dirt bikes who ripped past us, hung out by the falls for a bit, and took off again, leaving exhaust in their wake. Lin tried to capture the beauty of the falls with the glacier in the background with his drone. We were able to hike up pretty close to the base of the falls.
After the falls, we pivoted our plans since it was such a gorgeous day and headed to Kirkjufell, one of the most famous spots on Snaefellsnes peninsula and it is also featured (briefly) in Game of Thrones. Lin really wanted to hike it while it was sunny and clear and the forecast for the next day was not promising that.
(Lin for a moment) The drive there was epic – with the setting sun at our back and illuminating the full cliffs and mountains all the way there. At one point the road climbed way up a mountain along the coast with a huge drop straight down (and guardrails, thankfully). We rounded the corner on the way down and, suddenly, there was Kirkjufell, looming in the distance, and it was HUGE. OMG. Like scary huge. Way larger in real life than in pictures. I had been looking forward to this hike for months, but suddenly felt unsure I could do it!! But we had to at least try. Since we had already put on more than 20,000 steps for the day, Kieran decided to opt out. Jo took the slow pace with the goal of making it up a couple of levels, and the rest galloped off to attempt to conquer the mountain.
(Jo again) Jo stopped after the first super steep section, but even from there, the views were pretty incredible—up into the mountains and glacier and out to sea. Just as she was starting back down, a couple of pretty big rocks tumbled down the next level up, which was pretty freaky. Eden, Elliot, Harrison, and Lin soon reappeared just above where the rocks had fallen so Jo shouted up a warning. Elliot went another couple of levels beyond Jo before he called it quits and waited for the others to return. Lin, Eden, and Harrison went up another level but the rockfall, steep heights, and precarious scrambling on pretty tired legs played into their decision to not attempt making it to the top this time.
(Lin: in truth, Harrison and Eden would have continued on, but I was depressed to see that, after quite a lot of serious technical scrambling and hiking, we were only like three-fifths of the way up, with much more difficult sections to go (according to AllTrails). With the sun setting, I pulled the plug, and Eden and Elliot were gracious about it. It was much more precarious and dangerous than I anticipated, and to me not worth the risk given our tired legs and the sunset. BUT the view up there was indescribable – so high up, and so immediately in front of us – the huge mountains straight ahead, ocean to the right, and large lake and town to the right. We sat there for a bit, taking it all in.)
Jo chatted with another hiker briefly—a business and finance student from Prague who is working at a hotel in Iceland for a second summer. He said the opportunities to do these kinds of hikes are “good for the spirit but bad for the knees.” 🤣
Jo returned to the camper and walked with Kieran to the Kirkjufellfoss waterfall for some photos before the others returned and Lin took some more waterfall pics. It is a super picturesque spot , and at sunset the sun illuminates the mountain with the waterfall in the foreground.
It was about a twenty minute drive back to the campground, and we were sort of racing the sunset since we wanted to view it on the water. We wanted to stop at a gorgeous beach we had seen along the way but there wasn’t parking so we drove to Hellisandur and found a place to park by the water and watch the sunset over the ocean. Sunsets do last kind of forever here so we headed to the campground after the sun disappeared and Lin had flown his drone a bit. The soft sunlight still bathed the Snæfellsjökull glacier, which was now visible, for an additional half hour. So lovely.
Once again we rolled into our site at Hellissandur Camping on the late side—around 8 or 9 has not been uncommon. We then sat around the dinner table talking for quite a while chatting. Eventually Lin headed out to the campground restroom around 11:30 pm and happened to look up and notice some northern lights on his return. We all stumbled out to enjoy a beautiful, constantly changing show of greens and purples with the orange glow of the sunset still on the horizon and the Big Dipper also easily visible, along with a crescent moon. It was on the chilly side but some of us stayed out for a good half hour enjoying the show. The season for northern lights officially started last week, but we weren’t even looking for them and just got really lucky with a beautifully clear sky. It was pretty incredible!
It’s hard to believe that after tonight, we will just have one more sleep in our trusty Frigg (camper).
Overnight we had a ferocious windstorm – so strong that we all woke up to a rocking van. We had parked the van pointed into the wind when we arrived, but the wind directed shifted overnight, so we felt it a lot. Eden was sleeping outside in her tent but decided to pack up in the wind and come inside rather than risk having something get damaged.
Our plan was to drive slightly east to Snafellsnes Peninsula and spend two days there, but since a huge rain system is sitting on the peninsula today, we instead opted to drive southeast to the Silver Circle, a series of attractions and sites in West Iceland. We lazed a bit, had breakfast, and then did the usual campervan flush out and fill up before hitting the road. Our drive took us past the creamery and into the gorgeous lush Scottish Highlands like valley we saw yesterday. The landscape continues to amaze us all – every corner presents another topographical feast for the eyes.
We first headed to Grabrokargigum, a series of three volcano craters. We hiked to the top of one (way too many stairs to count) and circled the top, being careful to not get blown over the edge by the strong winds. Some of us stopped by the lava-walled sheep pens on the way back down—Old Brekka Corral. Lin flew his drone for a bit.
A short drive took us to Glannifoss. The trail was lined with greenery including oodles of blueberries that distracted Eden and me. Yum! Glannifoss was on the smaller side but we all agreed it was lovely and we’d all enjoy playing in the little pools at the bottom of the various levels of the falls on a hot day!
Then it was on to Staldrid where there are crazy hot springs (Deildartunguhver), which bubble and spray but are too hot to even touch. We picked up some lunch at the food truck—the infamous Icelandic hotdogs (loaded with raw and fried onions, and various sauces), tomato soup, and a couple of overpriced panini sandwiches, which we ate in the tomato greenhouses that also had impressive lemon cucumber vines.
We stopped by a nearby horse farm (Sturlureykir) that gives tours of their stables and bakes bread with the geothermal heat. We debated but opted out of the tour after a busload of people showed up. The horses were lovely, though.
After Lin realized that the rest of the Silver Circle was on gravel roads, we opted to cut that tour short. We drove south and through Borganes (where Eden and I had been in 2024) and headed for the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. The weather turned sour as we entered the rain system – very low cloud cover and foggy. We knew there were sights to see, but we couldn’t see them! We stopped by the ocean at Ytri Tunga to check out about a dozen seals lounging on the rocks and seaweed. Then it was yet another waterfall hike–Bjarnafoss. It was misty and pretty foggy so we couldn’t see the top of the waterfall as we climbed. It got pretty precarious with the mud and rocks so only Lin, Eden, and Harrison ventured near the top. They basically had the place to themselves, and enjoyed the challenge of the steep rocky and muddy scramble.
We then drove to Búðakirkja, the black church—extra atmospheric in the mist and then made a last-minute decision to stop at Raudfeldar Canyon. How could we resist the incredible mossy green cliff face and small gorge opening that was visible from the road through the mist? It was a fairly short walk up to the opening of the slot canyon, which was in moss-covered cliffs that are reminiscent of Easter Island statues. We had to rock jump to get into the canyon via the small stream. It opened up a bit inside and then narrowed again. Eden, Harrison, and Jo continued back the extremely narrow canyon with the kids making it pretty far, even with Harrison wearing his sandals since his hiking boots had gotten damp inside! All in all a very cool stop just minutes from our campground at Arnarstapi.
The Arnastapi campsite was super muddy but mostly empty, so we found a spot with electricity and settled in for dinner, showers, etc. Once again, it felt like a super diverse, fun, and full day, with very different weather systems and activities.
After a bit of overnight rain, we woke up to glorious blue skies and sunshine. The wind was still blowing pretty hard and is supposed to keep blowing for a couple of days, which makes driving the camper van on the narrow roads (with basically no shoulder and sharp dropoffs) a little more intense than usual. With temps forecasted to be near 60, Lin and Harrison broke out their shorts and claim to not have regretted their decision. While the temps haven’t been usual Rhode Island summer weather, with proper gear/attire, it’s been pretty pleasant most of the time.
Lin and Eden started their day with a morning run along the river we could see from our campsite and then crossed a bridge to a large island in the middle of the river to add some mileage around the island. After breakfast, we did the usual camp cleanup: water bottle refills and then jug refills at the campground’s outdoor kitchen sink; emptying out the camper’s gray and black water; refilling the camper’s water reservoir; and offloading our trash. Eden also packed up her tent after sleeping in it near the camper for a second night.
Our first stop was the Heimilisidnadarsafnid (really) Textile Museum just a few minutes from the campground in Blonduos. Eden, Keiran, and Jo enjoyed the small museum with quite a few exhibits: 1) modern knitting pieces that integrated stone, horsehair, and some kind of salt crystals; 2) traditional Icelandic attire; 3) embroidery (so, so intricate!); 4) the collections of an Icelandic woman, Halldora Bjarnadottir, who died in 1981 at the age of 108; she was an educator, crafter, collector, and women’s organizer, who donated all her belongings to the museum before her death; and finally 5) an exhibit about Icelandic wool and its uses, where Eden and Kieran carded and spun a bit of yarn using Icelandic wool and a drop spindle.
While we enjoyed the museum, Lin, Elliot, and Harrison headed to the gas station to fill up with diesel and figure out the engine coolant, which was very low. Then they grabbed a few groceries before picking us up at the museum.
Our next stop was Vatnsdalshólar, which required several kilometers on a bumpy dirt/gravel road to a gorgeous lookout over a lake surrounded by mountains and green valley. Kieran counted the 89 steps up the steep hill to the lookout where we enjoyed the surrounding view and tried not to let our hats blow away. A highlight for some of the kids was a lengthy visit from a local herding dog who showed up soon after we arrived and welcomed lots of petting and scritches. I think some are missing Ace more than others! Lin couldn’t resist a few minutes of drone flight in an attempt to capture the beauty of the location.
Then it was on to Kolugljúfur Canyon, again requiring some time on bumpy roads and a questionable use of the parking area by most of the people there, making it a little challenging to navigate around the potholes and puddles in the camper, but we succeeded and enjoyed another windblown walk along the rim of the canyon and then across the bridge to see the main series of waterfalls. It was really beautiful and just the right size. The huge falls are sometimes just too much! This one had multiple streams and levels and was lovely to watch, even if the canyon setting made it a wee bit precarious to view.
From there, we headed to the Kidka Wool Factory Shop in Hvammstangi to peruse the many Icelandic wool sweaters, blankets, hats, socks, mittens, wrist warmers, horse blankets, and who knows what else! Eden ended up with a pair of fleece-lined mittens and Jo got a book: How Iceland Changed the World by Egill Bjarnanson, but mostly we just poked around. Icelandic wool is quite rough and scratchy, so even though everything is beautiful, the reality of wearing a lot of it in our everyday lives kept us from big purchases.
Just up the road from Kidka is the Icelandic Seal Center, so we drove over to see if it was worth a visit and decided to skip it for a frolic along the nearby coastal path (Jo opted for a nap in the camper as she tries to shake the tail end of a cold).
Our final stop of the day (definitely a light day in terms of stops and number of steps) was at Erpsstadir Creamery on a dairy farm for delicious ice cream and Skyr. The views of the verdant valley, the cows mowing the grass just feet away, and a couple of adorable pigs provided the perfect setting to enjoy our treats and for the kids (and Lin) to spend on the inground trampoline.
We drove about three minutes to an idyllic campground (Saelukotid Arbilk) with fabulous views, arriving at a record early time just after 6:30 pm. After dinner, Lin and Harrison threw a football again. The weather was just perfect, and the sunset / dusk lingered forever.
Today we woke up and got moving relatively quickly to downtown Akureyri.
We had to make another trip to a nearby BONUS, where we once again splurged on never-before-seen candies, drinks, and other various items, while buying a few of the essentials. Many laps were taken around the store for some reason, which ended up including not one, not two or three, but four passes by the wall of candy. Harrison also grabbed a bag of special dog treats for Ace, who probably won’t know the difference anyways. Eden bought BONUS socks, Mom bought a BONUS bag, and Harrison bought a stretchy rubber poop-shaped toy in memory of Elliot, who had stayed in the camper. This poop has terrorized many. (Somehow extended time together has caused us to revert to childhood silliness, which is bonding and fun.)
We were greeted by adorable heart-shaped stoplights at intersections while we parked the van to explore a pedestrian street that consisted of shops, food vendors, and even a little playground. After window shopping an array of beautiful Icelandic clothing that would have required a secret inheritance from an unknown great-great-grandfather to purchase, us four children took our chances on a teeny pedal-powered merry-go-round of which the centrifugal forces threatened to send our speedy behinds flying off our seats. After that dizzying experience, we ordered a few incredible classic Icelandic hot dogs with all of the toppings from a food truck that very well might have been the best I personally have ever tasted. However, with the threat of our expiring allotted parking time, we hurried back to the camper and set course for a destination in the next little town with seaside geothermal hot tubs.
Dad and Eden had scoped out this location for a reason, though: the hot tubs were on an easily accessible beach, encouraging visitors to take a polar plunge in near-arctic waters before running for dear life to the hot tubs. And us, being visitors, did just that. I, Elliot D. (Dangerously-cold) Fisher, can testify that the freezing shock was not only extremely cold but also painful in particular to the leg and foot region. It was the kind of experience that absolutely sucked but also felt completely necessary because you’re there and simply have to do it. The hot tubs were a very nice remedy to the cold, and we kept returning to after subsequent plunges. [For the record, it was a super fun experience repeatedly going from the cold to the hot and back again – a highlight for many of us.]
At the recommendation of one of Eden’s friends, we stopped in Dalvik at Gisli Eirkur Helgi Kaffhüs for their soup of the day, which was a curry fish stew. It was absolutely adorable: a large counter full of mismatched china plates with trays of bread and salad and soup greeted us when we walked in; there were pastries in a display to the right; and the wooden walls were full with Icelandic knickknacks. It was awesome. Too bad we didn’t stay longer because the upstairs was adorable, too, with simultaneous views of nearby mountains and the fjord.
The next large chunk of our day was occupied by driving up around the northern part of Iceland, following the outline of the fjords. Tunnels that were enormous in length and dangerously confined in width provided us with feelings of claustrophobia in the wake of mountains above our heads. Some of the tunnels featured a single lane for two way traffic. Our only saving grace against the onslaught of a couple oncoming cars were the frequent pullover stops. There did not seem to be any rhyme or reason to the order of cars, but we didn’t want to risk anything so we dutifully pulled over whenever we saw headlights coming our way. There were some fear-inducing blind turns along the way, so I guess the Automobile Safety Guild of Iceland had gone on strike during the construction of the tunnel. Luckily, we made it through with no vehicular collisions.
Hi it’s Kieran again. After the scary tunnels, we took a group vote on whether or not to stop at a waterfall called Reykjafoss with a hot spring along the top of it, or to just continue straight to the campsite for the night. After a thrilling vote (almost everyone saying that they had zero preference), we decided to head to the waterfall, as it was still rather early. Stepping out of the camper, we were greeted with heavy winds and looming storm clouds, which looked ready to dump rain at any moment. Despite the weather conditions, we dutifully headed along the short trail, huddled in groups to conserve energy. The waterfall was beautiful, and the rain stayed at bay, thankfully. We crossed a small bridge as Dad successfully flew the drone in such high winds. Over the bridge and a small rise to the top of the waterfall, we were protected from the winds, and found two hot springs. One of which was scalding hot and empty, and the other being a reasonable temperature with a few other people also enjoying the warmth. Eden wasted no time in getting in, while alternating between the cold river plunge and the hot spring. She finished up, and we all headed back to the camper, being goofy along the way.
Before we had gotten to those falls, the four kids had decided to continue our watch through of the Cars series, inspired by Eden’s Lightning McQueen pillowpet, whom she had brought along. We started Cars 2, and finished it up on the way to Víðimýrarkirkja, the Víðimýri Turf Church, a cute small sod-roofed church in the middle of a giant field. From there we headed to the Tjaldsvaedid Blonduosi campground in the small town of Blonduos, which was a little over half an hour away from the waterfall. Today was a bit of a tough driving day for mom and dad, since we were going up around one of the northern “fingers” of Iceland. The roads are narrow, the winds were high, and sometimes the pavement switched to gravel for no reason. Luckily, we don’t have to drive!
We found a nice spot in the campground by the river, and quickly set up for a dinner of leftovers, which included mac & cheese, tikki malasa, and Eden’s curry. Halfway through dinner, a cat was spotted out of one of the windows, and Kieran naturally jumped up and out of the camper to pursue it. The cat was lovely, happily being scooped up into Kieran’s arms and spending close to 20 minutes in a warm bliss in Kieran’s lap on one of the camp chairs outside. But, as always, nature called so the cat returned to the wild in a hunting stance. We now find ourselves in the camper, getting ready to sleep soon, hopefully earlier than last night. The evening was pleasant, so Eden opted to set up her tent again and sleep outside, serenaded by the lovely river sound right next door. zzzzzzz
Today was a lazy morning since it started raining before we got up, and our first planned hike is essentially right next to the campground. We made pancakes again, but this time with the huge cache of wild blueberries we picked yesterday while walking through the lava fields of Dimmuborgir. They are smaller and a teeny bit tarter, but excellent. By the time we wrapped up breakfast, cleaned the camper a bit, and a few of us showered, the rain had subsided. We drove deep into the “U” of the Asbyrgi canyon and did a short circle hike right up to the teeniest little waterfall trickling down the face of the cliff into a lovely green-blue pool. On the way out, I (Lin) followed the camper van with the drone, since the road was narrow and we were going slowly.
We stopped briefly for fuel at the only gas station and mini-mart in Asbyrgi (which is not a town at all) before heading north to the coast, where we saw the North Sea for perhaps the first time. As the road wound up along the side of the cliffs, we stopped twice, first to see the views, and second to see puffins! We were high on the cliff but could clearly see puffins in the water below, flying around and diving for food. Occasionally one would land higher up on the cliffs for us to have a clearer view. The panorama sea view from up high was majestic, with a blue sky and widely variable water hues in the distance ranging from Caribbean blue to deep dark ocean blue.
[Eden here] From there we continued wrapping around the coast of the peninsula, continuing to get gorgeous views of the water, and, as we started to head south, of the mountainous peninsula to the west. We also saw an arctic fox! In its summer outfit of gray fur.
The arrival to Husavik was every bit as dramatic as hoped. Mom and I have been scheming about this moment for a year and a half now, ever since we thought about journeying to Husavik in 2024 to pay homage to the setting of the Eurovision movie. We cheered when we passed the town sign. Our first stop was the Jaja Ding Dong Bar and the Official Eurovision Museum. We sampled some local food (lamb soup + skyr) and Mom and Kieran and I visited the museum, which gave info on Eurovision, Iceland in Eurovision, and the movie itself. It was entertaining. The bar (which was created after the movie was released but looked nothing like the movie version) has a fabulous view of the Husavik harbor backdropped by the town itself and, beyond that, an amazing green hump of land. Visually it’s by far my favorite town we’ve been in, and that’s excluding exposure bias from having seen it on screen, too. :~) The bar is also located right next to a monument to the Apollo space mission because they had “geology field trips” in Iceland in 1965 and 1967. Random. After the museum we met Dad+Elliot+Harrison at a restaurant for some rare restaurant food (pizza and some local fish!), and then menaced the streets for a bit (church, rainbow road, outdoor gear shop, crafts shop, souvenir shop, gas station) before heading out again.
We continued south to Þorgeirskirkja, a church built in 2000 to commemorate a millenium of Christianity in Iceland, and then to Goðafoss, the last stop on the so-called Diamond Circle and the place where Porgeir allegedly threw in his heathen gods as a symbolic act of dispensing with heathenism. We liked these falls a lot: cute canyon, nice water color, impressive volume of water without being overwhelming. The bigger falls aren’t as fun because you don’t get the intimate experience of getting close to the source but it was still pretty. We saw yet another rainbow on our way out.
From there we followed the ring road westish towards Akureyri, the capital of the north, first poking along in the valleys between big sloping mountains patchworked by pockets of farmland and then cutting through one such mountain via a 7km tunnel (the only paid one in Iceland) that dumped us out on a fjord overlooking Akureryi. Our first and only stop in town was to see the Botanic Garden, which I’ve been excited about for a while. It had an awesome spread of arctic/local plants and an impressive array of other species too — impressive given both the northern location and small size of the garden. We stayed longer than I expected to but not as long as I would have wanted. My plant knowledge is eroding rapidly, sadly (from college classes, thesis research, etc.).
The campsite wasn’t far away from downtown Akureyri, and we are now parked in a grassy field with 180 deg views of mountains/valleys/fjords. It is awesome. As we were driving in we could see the evening sun on the slopes across the fjord while also seeing rain in two valleys to the southeast. Hopefully we get up early enough to explore more of downtown tomorrow, too, since this is allegedly the capital of the north!
We finished the evening by eating hotdogs and leftovers while watching Cars movie, the laptop propped against the window with mountain views in the background. We love that movie.
Today was nice. We are maybe officially hitting the midtrip energy slump and it is nice to have days that match that. Also fun to walk around town(s)!
Note: you can click on the pictures for larger versions and/or a gallery.
Had an excellent night in Campground Fjalladyrd/Mödrudalur. We were up on the earlier side, including Eden, while Lin had the coldest shower of his entire life since the water heater was not working in the bath house. Rather unusually, they charged for showers at this campground, but since the hot water was broken, it was free. 😉 We do have a heated shower in the camper van, but we have used it sparingly. Actually, the van is pretty cool – has huge propane tanks that power the fridge, the hot water, the camper heater (forced air with ports all over the living areas), and the stove. When we plug it in at a campsite, the fridge switches to electric. So you can have hot water, the stove, and fridge even if not plugged in. It also has a “house” battery for lights, etc. There have only been a few nights where we could not access a plug (this was one of them), and the only downside is that I have to rely on an array of battery bricks we brought to charge the phones and my laptop. Otherwise, we wouldn’t really need electricity.
Had an excellent night in Campground Fjalladyrd/Mödrudalur. We were up on the earlier side, including Eden, while Lin had the coldest shower of his entire life since the water heater was not working in the bath house. Rather unusually, they charged for showers at this campground, but since the hot water was broken, it was free. 😉 We do have a heated shower in the camper van, but we have used it sparingly. Actually, the van is pretty cool – has huge propane tanks that power the fridge, the hot water, the camper heater (forced air with ports all over the living areas), and the stove. When we plug it in at a campsite, the fridge switches to electric. So you can have hot water, the stove, and fridge even if not plugged in. It also has a “house” battery for lights, etc. There have only been a few nights where we could not access a plug (this was one of them), and the only downside is that I have to rely on an array of battery bricks we brought to charge the phones and my laptop. Otherwise, we wouldn’t really need electricity.
We finally wrapped up and said goodbye to our favorite campground so far and drove back out the gravel road to route 1 before driving up out of the immense flat highlands (rimmed with mountains) and down into the Lake Myvtan region. Our first stop was at Höfði, a peaceful little wooded peninsula jutting out into Lake Myvtan that has lava pillars in the water. We had read online that Lake Myvtan is known for small annoying gnats called midges, so we dutifully pulled out our headnets that we had packed before stepping out of the camper. Immediately, we understood why! Dozens of midges swarmed around our heads, although once we were on the trail, they were generally less present. They don’t bite at all, but it is unpleasant without a net to say the least. Eden was the most experienced net-wearer of all of us, having to sport one almost all the time she was outdoors in Alaska for the past two summers conducting research for her senior thesis. The hike was peaceful, with the best view of the lake at the end.
From there we drove a few minutes down the road to Dimmuborgir, which is a large lava field with unique lava formations. We did a mid-length trail of two miles or so, which took us through the center core of the field. Eden immediately spotted wild blueberries, so we all spent more time than the walk required, picking blueberries along the way – some for immediate consumption, and others to keep for tomorrow’s breakfast (kept safe in a ziploc). Before leaving, some of us paid for the restroom – the first time for us, since most of them have been free (and we have one in the camper van, too).
Next was Hverfjall crater, a massive volcano with a 2.1 mi loop around the perimeter of the crater up top. It required a steep climb but once up we were rewarded with views of the massive crater to one side and views of Lake Myvatn/geothermal area/mountains to the other. We immediately began an intense familial debate about which direction to traverse the rim: clockwise, which consisted of a series of slight uphills and slighter downhills until the peak, after which was a sharp downhill, or counterclockwise, which was the opposite. We decided on the latter. I think this is about as close to “fighting” as we get as a family – more of a low-stakes debate (although of course we have minor annoyances with each other in such a tight space over two weeks). The views were stunning and the trail conversation was silly and we were all in good spirits, especially so because we could see rain in the valley below but it never reached us. On the frolic down, inspired by Harrison’s baseball practice (throwing baseball sized rocks into the crater – which was devoid of people), Dad challenged Kieran and Eden to estimate how long it would take to fill the crater if every visitor threw one rock into the middle, with the assumption that the crater sides would not shrink in size with every rock removed. We approximated 36k years. In case that was a question in anyone else’s mind.
After that was the Hverir geothermal area, which somehow smelled worse than the campervan. We didn’t stay long but the sulfur smoke and resulting colors of rocks were cool! Like Yellowstone but not. Lin flew the drone from a distance, being sure not to fly over people.
Then was a half hour drive north, again leaving the Ring Road, to Dettifoss, (disputedly) the most powerful waterfall in Europe. The falls themselves were a little underwhelming because the mist and direction of the wind blocked much of the water itself, but it was neat to see. And the landscape was crazy! Not much vegetation — looked like Mars.
After viewing Detifoss, Eden set out north on a long trail run of 20 miles to our campsite. She and Lin are both training for the Canyon de Chelly ultramarathon in Arizona in early October, but Lin has paused his training due to knee issues, so he couldn’t join her, sadly. The rest of us walked a bit to see a Selfoss, a second and much wider waterfall upstream.
We loaded back in the van and drove the 20 miles to Asbyrgi campground, situated within a large horseshoe-shaped canyon with walls that are between 50 and 200 feet tall (with the tallest being at the center of the “U”). The campground was large and shockingly nearly empty, so we had our pick of spots near the canyon wall, and with electricity. Lin started on dinner and eventually Eden arrived, having hit 20 miles! Her run was mostly downhill, but through an insane diversity of landscapes, from the moon-like landscape, next to rivers and canyons, including a significant small river crossing, through low vegetation / forest, and then down the canyon face (mostly using a rope). She did not see a single person the whole time. Sort of freaky.
Harrison and Lin threw a football outside around 10 pm – trying to keep Harrison’s pitching arm in shape!
We are averaging approximately 20,000 steps per day, which is excellent. Some days I am closer to 30,000 – and sometimes those include arduous hikes. It feels good to drop into bed feeling like you’ve done something. Each day we drop things from our itinerary, though! Lin had done a ton of preparatory research, and then Eden put together a preliminary itinerary for most days that Lin and Eden both filled in. It’s worked out pretty well so far, but requires both of us to scramble the night before and sometimes on the road, finishing the details and finalizing things that we want to do.
(Note: you can click the images to see larger versions.)
Camper-van-ing with teens and college-aged kids is interesting, since we all have different bedtimes and sleep needs. Some of the kids and I stay up late, but then we want to be up and on the road much earlier than they do. It’s been working, though. Today we woke up, made breakfast, some of us showered, and then I (Lin) did the usual emptying of the black water container “cassette,” draining the grey water in the designated place, and filling up the drinking water in the camper van. I also filled up with diesel before joining the others at a fun discount grocery store, where we refilled on some snacks, bread, milk, chicken, and other goodies.
We hit the road and headed south, driving along Lagarfljót, a lake supposedly with a lochness-type monster in it. On the east side we drove through part of Hallormsstadhaskogur, supposedly the largest forest in Iceland (of which there are not many!). Around the southernmost tip was a beautiful waterfall named Hengifoss, famous for its red rock horizontal stripes. As we approached, it was quite visible from the road a ways back. We pulled into the parking lot and began the usual way-too-long process of getting shoes, jackets, water bottles, snacks, backpacks, cameras, etc. etc. The trail up was steep but well maintained – a lot of the larger, popular stops have sort of a plastic grating down to help with mud control as well as ice and snow (in the winter). On the way we passed a smaller waterfall, Litlanesfoss. We went up to the viewpoint to see Hengifoss, and quickly realized that people were hiking the quarter or mile up to the falls itself, so we did, too. It was actually really fun – a lot of rock hopping and navigating steep banks, etc. At the top you go right up to the beautiful blue pool that was completely obscured from down below. We spent some time taking pictures and wondering at the power of the falls.
On the road again, our next planned stop was Stuðlagil Canyon, which was back a long-ish gravel roads. In Iceland, the roads are of varying qualities, with different restrictions placed on various kinds of rental vehicles. Many roads are paved (like the Ring Road, Rt. 1), but even when paved, they usually have zero shoulders and often drop off sharply either a few feet or dozens or even hundreds of feet. Guardrails are sparsely used for the most dangerous dropoffs. It can be quite nerve-wracking to meet a large bus or a tractor trailer barrelling toward you at 90 km on a road that seemingly barely fits the two side by side. We are both reasonably competent drivers, so within a day or two our nerves had steeled, but the camper van – and stick shift at that – felt like it took more energy and focus to drive on these roads. But there are also a lot of gravel roads of varying qualities. Sometimes they are fine, even if a little wash-boarded, and the camper handled those okay for the most part. But sometimes gravel roads had sections of potholes, etc. And sometimes paved roads can suddenly become gravel roads, too, which happened to us several times on the north and east fjords. And then there are F roads, which are gravel, rocks, rough, and limited to 4×4 vehicles.
Anyway, the road to Stuðlagil Canyon was just a gravel road, but it was narrow, long, and perched on the edge of some steep slopes down to a river. Yikes. Unfortunately, I put in the wrong address to the west parking lot, which was noted online to be clearly inferior. So we turned around, backtracked and went up an even rougher road to the east side parking lot before walking 1.75 miles back to the canyon. There were lots of people there, but it wasn’t too crowded. The canyon is short and somewhat narrow lined with columnar rock formations that creates a unique look. The water can be a lovely blue certain times of year, but it was grey and milky now. We took some pictures, and I flew the drone through the canyon and around a bit. (Drones are generally permitted in Iceland, except in protected preserves and / or when there are posted signs. I generally observed those restrictions, of course.)
Back on the Ring Road again, we decided to stop at Rjúkandi, a lovely waterfall very close to the road. There was a short and steep path leading up to a nice lookout, with very few people on it. The falls were high, and spilled down over several levels. I flew the drone a bit and could see the full scope of the falls much better from farther up and out. It was really lovely.
From there we drove up, up, up into the highlands (although not the official off-road highlands), where the Ring Road gently winds its way across the most incredible barren landscape surrounded by distant mountains and peaks. It felt super surreal and remote – with zero houses or farms, but somehow still sheep occasionally! We drove for miles and miles (ahem, kilometers and kilometers) before arriving at an intersection with a teeny little store and gas station. We turned left there towards our campsite, and soon hit a gravel road that took us 8 minutes or so to drive back to the Campground Fjalladyrd/Mödrudalur.
We immediately fell in love with this campsite – it was so quaint with sod-roofed buildings that also had sod stacked up on the side for insulation. It seemed like a working farm, too, plus a small restaurant and adequate camping grounds. And really, we were in the middle of a ginormous open expanse surrounded by a distant ring of mountains in all directions. I flew my drone in the beautiful dusk light, but it was hard to fully capture the expanse.
Eden decided to set up her tent next to the van tonight – she was hoping to do some backcountry hiking/sleeping, but it doesn’t seem super permissible in certain areas.
We decided on a motto for this trip: “You can always get closer.” As one does on family trips with way too much time on one’s hands, we spent way too long thinking about the various ways it applied:
You can always get closer to a waterfall (the OG application)
You can always get closer as a family
You can always get closer to going bankrupt (from this trip)
You can always get closer to food poisoning (from foraging).
You can always get closer to dying (from getting too close to the edge of the cliff).
You can always get closer to having a good night’s sleep.
Etc.
For dinner we had an exquisite curry dinner led by Eden — so good. And now: bed!
(Note: click on the images below to see full size versions.)
Motivation to beat the shower lines was an excellent alarm clock this morning — we were miraculously all up by 8! I forced myself to do a quick run down to the edge of the ocean but unfortunately that meant I had to wait in a shower line after all. But then we were on the road by 9:25 (record time! and freshly clean!) heading southeast back along the ring road to Hofn, a tiny seaside harbor town. Hofn seemed a bit sad. It was mostly hotels. We stopped for a toilet and gas and left immediately.
Oh wait — Dad just reminded me that before Hofn we stopped at a Viking village recreation on the same property as our campsite. If I am remembering correctly, that was the original site of the first village in Iceland! We had fun poking around, particularly on the ship. We made a brief stop at Stokksnes, another black sand beach, before going to Hofn.
After Hofn we saw the Red Chair, literally just a big red chair bolted to a rock on the side of the road, before a short but fabulous frolic to Skútafoss. The trail was in a small valley between two massive slopes extending upwards on either side of us, and the view ahead was of more similar foggy mountains. All of the adjacent mountains (like at Vestrahorn) have these wildly craggy tops that jut out of slopes seemingly made of rock piles. Harrison scrambled up to the base of the rocks and that gave us a sense of the scale. The waterfall itself wasn’t massive but we had a fun time crouching behind it and poking around in the adjacent cave and taking a million pictures. I really regretted not bringing my suit because the water was a gorgeous turquoise and the cave would’ve been the perfect shelter to dry off afterwards. Next time, I told myself, but I still have yet to swim.
We stopped at the Hvalnes Nature Reserve Beach to eat a hot lunch. This would have been a perfect beautiful amazing drone shot — Route 1 bends around the blunt peninsula in a gorgeous way, with the peaks jutting up dramatically above it — except that a layer of fluffy gray clouds covered most of the peaks. Grand Tetons 2.0 for Dad [meaning that during our cross country trip in 2016, the Teton mountain range was completely shrouded in fog and clouds when we visited, much to Dad’s disappointment]. It was still an incredible place to pull out the camping chairs and eat our leftover noodles and sandwiches. Dad’s drone was fully tested by the winds, but it handled it like a champ.
After that, the weather mostly cleared up and the rest of the day was an adventure weaving in and out of the fjords! aka the most insane views ever. Such diversity of beauty!! It was a pretty awesome afternoon, interspersing the driving with lots of rounds of Liars’ Dice, and interspersing the Dice with looking out the window at the insane view, and interspersing the looking with lots of stops:
We stopped at:
Lækjavik, a black sand beach with nice views but not as beautiful as the one near Vik;
Djúpivogur, another little coastal town that was much cuter than Hofn and had an awesome public sculpture art of 34 eggs (Eggin í Gleðivík) arranged in a line along the coast, one for each species of bird that is found in that area;
Blábjörg, incredible green rocks along the coast formed by volcanoes and some other cool science;
Stöðvarfjörður, a little coastal town (actually we did not stop: just drove through);
Fáskrúðsfjörður, another little town that was settled by the French and thus has French flags flying and all the street names are labelled in French and Icelandic;
Gilsárfoss, a last-minute decision to stop and hike, which ended up being my favorite part of the day: a perfect tundra-esque landscape to collect tufts of sheep wool as we meandered up the hill with the riverbed far below, until we went down to meet it at the waterfall, which again fell into a beautiful pool of turquoise water and had caves to explore. Kieran discovered clay(!!), and along the way back we realized that what we had thought was a pizza oven might actually be a kiln! And I picked wild blueberries. This hike felt magical – we were completely by ourselves surrounded by towering mountains, the fjord, and the falls.
And now we are at the main campsite in Eskifjörður, the biggest town (city?) we’ve been in since probably (definitely?) Reykjavik. It is on the shores of a long lake (Lagarfljót) that we will drive around tomorrow. Dad and I are sitting in the laundry room waiting for our stuff to come out of the dryer. It is taking forever (Dad waited until 12:30 am for it to finish!). Our campsite is at the edge of a small woods, and earlier Harrison and I ran up the trails in it to a small rocky overlook with views of the campground and nearby lake. It was epic. We ate tortellini for dinner sitting outside in our camp chairs.
Today felt different for some reason. The fjords felt yet again really unique, we did not see many other people, the waterfalls were smaller but less crowded, and the dice was a fun way to pass the time. Not that any of us are wanting time to pass! Dad and I just mapped out the rest of our nights here. We all agree that it feels like we’ve been here forever — and yet the end is already within sight. So much to do! :~)
Fisher Family Travels 