The Half-Ring Road: Part 3, The West and The North

Since I'm a bit behind on the posting (in Ireland already!) I'm going to try to lump the west and north of Iceland into one post!

Upon leaving the south, we hit one of my favorite spots in Iceland: the Snæfellsnes peninsula. Unfortunately, since no one had talked it up or said there was much to see there, we only booked one night.
WHY DID NO ONE MENTION THIS PLACE? THERE WERE LITERALLY

RAINBOWS

EVERYWHERE

Also on the way we stopped in Borgarnes for some delicious pastries and found Ben Stiller. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was actually one of the reasons we considered Iceland, so it's fun to look out the window and see one of the exact spots he was standing.

We spent the night in Olafsvik, a smallish fishing town towards the northwestern side of the peninsula. To get there we had to drive a gravel road up and over a mountain, which our poor tin can "Sheepish" had some trouble with. But the view driving down was astounding. As both Ashlen and I had been a bit too tied to our phones, we decided to put them down and enjoy the rest of our time in Olafsvik without them.

But just so you know, if you decide to spend the night in Olafsvik, head outside at night and check out the lighted waterfall with the geometrically interesting church in the foreground.

Also, never double lock your door. I accidentally did, and the lock broke. Our wonderful hosts were very accommodating and helped us haul our bags out the window after forcing it open, getting Ashlen through the window to try the lock, unsuccessfully trying to drill through the lock, and then getting Ashlen back out the window. Thankfully they had another room available and gave us a partial refund as an apology, while we laughed at the entire thing and were glad we had another story to add to this crazy adventure.

Akureyri was our next stop, a mere 5.5 hours' drive away. Despite that our host convinced us we had to see the tip of the peninsula if we could, so we added some time to the journey and took in some of the sights.

The weather was constantly on the edge of rain or sun, with fog drifting through the mountains. One of the first stops we made was a massive crater right on the side of the road.

We took a breathless hike up some stairs, seemingly designed to wind us, to the top for a great look at the countryside around. Once thing was clear, we were surrounded by old volcanos...that were hopefully going to stay old.

Further down towards the southwestern tip was Djúpalónssandur, a beautiful beach populated by old Viking lifting stones, where you could test your strength and see if you qualified to get on to a Viking ship (I did...barely). Rusted pieces of an old shipwreck also littered the area.

There was an option to take a long hike from here along the rest of the coast, but pressed for time, we continued onwards.

Next up was an unsuccessful trip up a mountain to touch the local glacier. Our host had told us our car could handle it. The potholes and large incline disagreed.

So instead we turned around and headed to Arnarstapi for a walk along the cliffs and to check out the birds that nest there.

This was the point where I really wished we had more than a couple hours. The sun had come out, the cliffs were beautiful, massive holes led down to the ocean below, and a hike towards Hellnar promised more and more beauty. 

Alas, the north awaited. We lingered for as long as we could, gazing out to the ocean and marveling at all the rock formations, before making the 5 hour drive to Akureyri. But Snæfellsnes wouldn't just let us leave, instead it greeted us with a new rainbow around every corner, including a complete double rainbow that couldn't be captured in pictures it was so massive.

A large number of stopped cars also spoke of a sight not to be missed, and we walked into a giant canyon that looked like a giant's hands were pulling the hill apart. Inside, you could traverse waterfalls inward as the walls closed in. Quite the sight.

We finally bid it all farewell, convinced now that every person living in Iceland is guaranteed their own mountain, picturesque river, and rainbow.

The North

The first thing we noticed about the "interior" heading to Akureyri is just how much the landscape and vegetation changed. Suddenly we were in eastern Washington. More trees started to pop up. The colors shifted from the greens we had been seeing to predominantly reds. It was a whole new environment.

We had heard that the Westfjords were beautiful, with a fascinating witchcraft museum (the witches were men here apparently) but they were very hard to drive and very out of the way. As such, we merely got a passing glance at them as we passed on the ring road.

The sun set behind us, and from there it was simply a long black drive with the fireflies of reflectors along the road dancing ahead of us. There was nothing to see, nowhere to go but onward, as even the hints of cities disappeared.

We arrived late in the night at our airbnb in Akureyri. There was a quick introduction to our lovely host, a show around the small kitchen and up a spiral staircase to our moderately well-sized room, where we promptly crashed. In fact, we crashed the entire next day as well. This was when we learned a much needed lesson: it's okay to do nothing sometimes. A long week in Reykjavik followed by a rapid tour of the south and west followed by a 5.5 hour drive had wiped us out. The most we did was meet the two live-ins who rented the space year-round and watch a bunch of Steven Universe.

But come the second day, we realize we have two choices. One, explore the "Diamond Circle", Akureyri's answer to Reykjavik's Golden Circle, or just head north up the peninsula in search of some hot pots (hot springs that locals had turned into hot tubs) and possibly a horse roundup festival that was supposed to be happening that weekend. We opted for option 2, and headed north to Dalvik.

Unfortunately for us, we choose to do this on a Sunday, when practically everything was closed. We did come across a wonderful cafe though, which would be a Seattle hipster's dream.

We didn't spend much time there, as we wanted to at least try to get around the peninsula, and the house roundup was nowhere in sight. Just a few minutes out of town, though, we had to stop again because while there were no markers of any sort, we saw something we just had to capture.

This beauty had no name, nothing to distinguish it. It was just another beautiful waterfall in Iceland. There was a small trail that someone had obviously left before us through plants sprouting berries at every footfall, but instead of the normal tourist stopoff we would've found along the coast, there was simply noting but the falls.

Onward we drove, through a couple terrifying tunnels through the mountains (one of which was one-way with turnouts).

We stumbled across an old, quiet fishing town called Siglufjordur, and decided to have a look around to calm ourselves after 10km of tunnels. It became clear pretty quickly that this was a family town, and a drinking town. Three bars greeted us within the space of two blocks, as well as a surprising number of children. Being Sunday, everything was still closed, but there was a beautiful old rusting fishing boat on display, as well as some kind of liferaft memorial.

It was going to take another hour at least in not-great weather to reach the possible site of the horse roundup, but we had both had enough by that point and decided instead to turn back and spend a little more time in Dalvik, the birthplace of the tallest man that's ever lived.

The next day, it was time for the Diamond Circle. We immediately noticed one distinction the Diamond Circle has over the Golden Circle is its size. It's easily twice the length, and most definitely an actual circle with sights to see all along it. It was going to be almost impossible to see the whole thing, so we decided to try the southern edge of the circle out to Dettifoss (the most powerful waterfall in Europe), and then turn back home. But first up, some falls that followed the trend of beautiful sights hiding around corners even when you should be able to see them from miles away: Godafoss.

According to local legend, when Iceland's leaders first decided to abandon their pagan ways and adopt Christianity, a chieftain threw the statues of their pagan gods down into Godafoss as a symbol of their new devotion. For me it was no Gullfoss, but it was still cool to see a place of such historical significance. It was also cool as a scientist to hike over a spot where the falls were spilling over and to recognize that in a hundred years or so this would be another part of the falls and quite unwalkable. So much of Iceland is walking over ancient and active geology, erosion, and volcanoes. It's basically a giant lesson in earth science.

Next up was Lake Myvatn, an area littered with "pseudovolcanoes"; craters created from lava hitting water.

We took a slightly wrong turn and ended up on the south side of the lake, away from most tourists and buses. There was a supposed hour walk around a couple craters, through farmland littered with sheep, but the walk took at most half an hour. Nonetheless, it was quite beautiful, with stunning views of the surrounding craters and the lake itself.

Around the lake was also the famous Myvatn Nature Baths, the north's answer to the too-expensive-for-us Blue Lagoon. Unfortunately, being towards the end of our time in Iceland and having already spent far over what we were expecting to spend, we skipped this spot as well in favor of looking forward to one more trip to the public pools.

But there was something else that stuck out when looking at a map of the area...caves.

We pulled into a parking spot two cars wide that led to a hiking trail towards two caves, Stóragjá and Grjótagjá, as well as the remains of a massive volcano in the distance.

It's hard to impress with just an image, but from this distance we could only see tiny specks along the mountain no bigger than pinpoints. Those pinpoints we eventually discovered were people, and what we were seeing was essentially the size of some cities we had been to. But first, the caves.

The trail almost felt like a deathtrap. Sinkholes were everywhere, and it quickly became clear this area was a giant cave-in waiting to happen. Yet we continued on through the crevices and eventually came to Stóragjá. Now, we had heard reports that it wasn't safe to bathe in due to E. coli growth in the water, but that didn't seem to stop the people who belonged to the several pairs of wet underwear we found. But the cave itself...well, unless you plan on swimming, there's not much to see. There's a rope down into the water at one end through a very narrow entrance, and a ladder down at another end with a shelf for candles apparently.

That's about the best I could capture. Slightly disappointed, we decided to take the 2km hike over to Grjótagjá. This made it worth it.

Unfortunately my phone was draining fast so I didn't get any pictures of the hike over, but trust me, it was gorgeous. Metallic silver trees replaced by desolate lava fields straight out of Lord of the Rings. The light was already starting to fade when we reached Grjótagjá, and the chill was setting in. Thankfully we found this:

The entire cavern was warm with the heat rising off the water (which had been labeled too hot to swim in). The pool itself was crystal clear and offered two different entrances to admire it from. Well worth the trek...even after we saw that the road led straight to it.

But with the light on its' way towards the horizon, we had to make a decision: keep heading towards the massive volcano and face a steep hike and the possibility of climbing down in darkness, or move on towards Viti, a volcano with a lake inside it. The latter won out, and we trekked back to the car.

We drove past the Nature Baths to find an entire lake of bright blue geothermal water, followed by, well, Yellowstone.

This unexpected wealth of hot springs, most of which were just barely roped off, was one of my highlights. Bubbling pools of minerals and muck with a roaring steam vent and the inescapable smell of sulfur. It was a wonderful surprise. But we were running out of time, and Viti awaited.

We drove up a winding road through a large geothermal power plant, and joined about three other stragglers looking to grab the sunset from a volcano.

We briefly considered trying to hit Dettifoss before the last of the light faded, but it wasn't to be. We drove back through the night and crashed.

In the morning we bid farewell to Akureyri, and hopped back on the road to Reykjavik for our final night in Iceland before setting off for Ireland. It said goodbye in spectacular fashion. First with some final landscape shots:

And then, the night we were heading to the airport, when literally historic levels of Aurora activity flooded Reykjavik, and they turned off streetlights. I will literally never forget looking up and seeing what looked like clouds, blossoming into an entire pool of writhing light directly above me. We watched it rise and fall and dim and brighten and move away and return for about 2 hours.

We spent the night at the airport, sleeping on the floor for what little time we could before moving back through passport control, to our gate, and on to the next step of our journey...Ireland.

To be continued...

The Half-Ring Road: Part 2, The South

We arrived at our airbnb fairly late, but thankfully everyone was still awake, including a very nice family from Spain. They informed us that tonight might actually be a good chance to see the northern lights, and that midnight seemed to be the magic hour. Or at least it was when he was in the Westfjords.
Well sure enough, ladies and gents, we stepped outside right at midnight...and there they were. My poor phone couldn't capture it, but Ashlen has much better pictures on her fancy camera...which we're still figuring out how to transfer to a device. So I guess words well have to do for now.
There's a reason everyone says you should see them before you die. What filled the sky before us was a line of shifting green and yellow. This sometimes alien creature with a head and a tail that would swim towards us only to move away, while sometimes swimming over itself to reveal a gateway to another world hidden in the light.
In short...see it before you die.

In the morning we made our way out to explore the south. We knew we wanted to reach the black sand beach of Vik, which had been recounted as one of the best sights to see. The glacial runoff further along towards Höfn called to me, but it was an additional two hours or so past Vik and we just couldn't squeeze it in.
At first, the weather wasn't so bad. Cloudy, but still enough light to see the sights like Eyjafjallajokull, the volcano that erupted and stopped all air travel in Europe, in the photo above. We also saw a waterfall that seemed to be quite popular right of the road and stopped in to find a gorgeous fall that you could actually walk behind.

Needless to say, it was pretty cool. But other sights kept stopping us on our way to Vik as well. Old ruins of houses, caves, and simply the beautiful scenery around us had us stopping often to snap a photo.
This unfortunately meant that by the time we got to Vik, the road looked like this:

"

And Vik looked like this:

Still impressive, with silky black sand as far as the eye could see and roaring waves to rival the Oregon coast, but after just a few minutes our pants were soaked through from the rain. We took shelter inside the local eatery and bought our first hamburger and fries since arriving. Slightly disappointed and very wet, we drive to the church on a hill to get a look at the sodden city. We can see how beautiful it would be in the sunlight...but for now, all we can feel is this:

On the drive back we try to catch some of the sights we passed along the way:
Some ruined houses built into the rock,

a cave with ferns for a roof,

and another small cave hidden behind a fenced-in playfield.

We tried to get a good look at Skógafoss, a waterfall we had passed, but the rain was simply too much to withstand for us to get anywhere close to it.
So overall, the south actually was a surprising disappointment. Having researched it before, and hearing testimonies that the south was the best, my expectations were high. And admittedly if the weather had been better, it might have lived up to them. There were several points where it was quite obvious that in the summer it would look great, or even in winter with snow covering the mountains. But in fall, it's simply not that interesting. The only things we haven't seen elsewhere were the old ruins and the fern-roofed cave.
So if you come to Iceland in the fall, I would instead recommend the place we only got to spend a couple hours in and highly regret not having at least a day for: the Snaefellsnes peninsula.

To be continued...

The Half-Ring Road: Part 1, The Golden Circle

The Golden Circle
The Golden Circle is a lie...but just in the sense that it's not actually a circle, it's a line. The circle part is just the way back to Reykjavik. As we're moving on to a town called Hella after this, the "circle" becomes more of a "slightly obtuse angle".
Our first stop was not actually planned. There was some beautiful scenery along the way (as there constantly is), so we pulled over to take some pictures. There were two rather lovely horses that seemed to take an interest in us when we stopped, so I walked up to the fence and sure enough, they ambled right over and let us pet them while they sniffed and nipped at our pockets for food. Two other travelers from Boston stopped by as well, and we quickly chat over our hometowns, where we're headed, etc. Over the next couple days I come to realize that tourism is so rampant here that if you just sit down next to someone, they are likely a tourist as well, and certain questions like "where are you from?" and "where are you going?" become the new small talk.

Cresting a ridge we find a giant lake in front of us. It seems at least as big as Puget Sound, stretching for miles. This is our first view of pingvellir National Park, the first official stop on the Golden Circle. The park is HUGE, containing stories of several historical events that occurred there as well as a gorgeous waterfall, burial mound for two of Iceland's famous poets, and giant chasms where the North American and Eurasian continental plates are dividing. The walk here is stunning, and could easily take several hours...and does.

Eventually we remember there's more to see and make our way to...
Geysir/Strokkur
Geysir is, as you may guess, the geyser after which all geysers are named. Unfortunately, it stopped exploding after some volcanic activity some years ago. This may lead you to believe there's no reason to visit this stop of the circle. You'd be wrong.
Walking up you are greeted with that sweet sulfuric smell and come across an almost Yellowstone-like area with bubbling pools, giant pillars of steam, and warnings every few feet that the water is 80-100 Celsius and WE KNOW IT'S PRETTY BUT PLEASE DON'T TOUCH.

After about 5 minutes of walking through that you get to a spot where suddenly you're walking through those streams of supposedly hot water (don't worry, it is in fact safe to touch), and you see the new main attraction: Strokkur.

Strokkur is a geyser that goes off about every 5 minutes. You can watch from a fairly close but still safe distance as this pool of geothermal water bubbles and surges and subsides until the bubble suddenly grows and explodes into this tower of water about 4-5 times your size. It's a fun sight to behold, and since you only have to wait 5 minutes between each blow, you can keep enjoying it until it gets boring. When it does, 10 minutes away lies by far the best sight of the circle, and even one of the best we've seen in Iceland...
Gullfoss
Meaning "Golden Falls", Gullfoss is an astounding sight. In fact, I think there's little words can do to describe the pure jaw-dropping epicness of this waterfall. So you get pictures instead.

Seriously. It was massive. You look out across this plain and then realize this waterfall is taking up an astoundingly large portion of your sightline. Then you walk down a hill to get closer and it just envelopes you. I can't recommend this sight highly enough. Especially when you consider that you can easily look out from the parking lot and spot a glacier.

See all that white close to the ground that looks like it should be an ocean? That's ice.
By this time it was getting late, and an optional crater we had meant to look at got passed by in favor of making it to our airbnb at least somewhat on time...

To be continued...