Finally, we awoke to no wind and believe it or not, the sun was shining. We managed to get an early start and head just a short distance down the road to the Hverfjall crater. A volcanic tuff ring crater about 1km wide and 140m deep. It was about a 15 minute hike up, but fairly steep. From the top there are some great views of Lake Mývatn and the surrounding area.
Our next stop was the Dimmuborgir formations. It’s an unusually shaped lava field. We were initially planning on just being here for 20 minutes or so. But Will found a trail named the difficult trail and thought we should change our plans. We had a good time walking around and trying to see faces or animal shapes in the rocks.
We pressed on to the Skútustaðagigar Peudocraters. Yes, formations that look like craters but aren’t. There are instead depressions in the soil that have a definite crater appearance. With the sunny day we had great views of Lake Mývtan or Lake Midge. When we pulled up to the parking area we noticed that the midges were swarming. They are small insects that don’t bite, but are a huge nuisance. So, we quickly donned our head nets and ventured out. We all agreed. The head nets was money well spent. We enjoyed our walk around unaffected, while those without were clearly in distress.
Godafoss was our next stop. It’s a horseshoe shaped waterfall that reminded us of a tiny Niagara Falls. After all the waterfalls we have seen thus far, seeing one that is only 40m tall seems so small in comparison.
We drove on to Akureyri. It’s the last big town we’d see for a couple of days, so we made sure to do our grocery shopping and gas up. We even stopped for a bite to eat at the gas station. Grabbing a hot dog at the gas station is a totally Icelandic thing to do. No hot dog for me, but instead a salty licorice shake. Mmm, good.
There aren’t too many sites on the North East side of Iceland. But I had found a spot on Google maps that was named viewpoint. So, I’m thinking, it’s a pretty overlook. Well, kind of, it was a viewpoint of many little hills. They have theories on how they were created, but no one knows for sure. And it’s one of the 3 uncountable things in Iceland. The uncountables:
- Islands of Breidafjordur
- Hills of Vatnsdalur
- Lakes of Arnarvatnsheidi
Our campground for this night, had a couple of thermal bathing pools. We took advantage of those, but some other guests also took a dip in the ocean. We said no to that option.