First impressions aren’t always right. Upon arriving at the airport in Iceland we
gathered our bags and made our way out to wait for the rental car shuttle
bus. We were prepared for cooler weather
but actually walking out into 20 MPH winds when the temperature is just above
50 felt much colder than I remember from April in Chicago. We instantly started wondering “did I bring
warm enough clothes”; even though we had thought through our packing list many
times. In truth, I think that was the
coldest I felt the whole time we were in Iceland so it was a bit of a false
alarm. In fact, when I unpacked back home I realized there were layers I had available
in my pack that I never needed.
What makes Iceland a good destination? Well I guess it depends on what you are
interested in but if the outdoors is your thing, and you don’t mind a little
inclement weather, this is a great place to consider. It's one of the places in the world I doubt a lot of people would say: "oh this reminds me of X". I'm not sure what else looks like this but it was all new to me.
My biggest overall impression had to be the landscapes. They are stunning, surprising, and more than
anything dramatic. The fact that Tolkien
never saw this place is amazing given the number of views that bear
similarities to my mind’s eye view of Middle Earth. Volcanoes, black rocks, dramatic cliffs and
waterfalls; all mixed with a barely populated land make for a ripe setting for
your imagination.
We did a nice mix of hiking and more traditional
tourist-type site seeing. Essentially of
our 7 days on the ground: 1 was in Reykjavik, 3 were dedicated to hiking, and 3
were getting from point A to point B with a lot of sightseeing thrown in.
DAY 1 - Reykjavik. I’ve never
seen a Nordic city, never having been to Scandinavia but it looks like what I
envisioned a Nordic city looking like. A
big village or a small capital city, take your pick. The discovery of a very nice craft beer, on
day 1, always sets a vacation off on the right foot. But much like New Zealand, I imagine few
people come to Iceland to hang out in the city.
We did most of the “A list” tourist stuff and picked up a few souvenirs. A good day and a chance to recover a bit from
jet lag.
We
stayed at Volcano Huts which was a nice compromise between roughing it and a
hotel. We rented a 4 bunk cabin that
basically just had a sink and beds but was perfect for what we were looking
for. The fact that they served food at the main building made
what we had to carry in significantly less intimidating. Having a breakfast available before a hike is
a huge plus since lunch is usually Clif bars and trail mix.
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| Our humble abode |
Day 3 - Thorsmork Hiking. Our first chance to day hike around Thorsmork.
We settled on a nice 5-6 hour round trip around the area. Great stuff and a chance to try out all our
equipment. The day was dry except a rain
shower that hit us in the last hour (and gave us a chance to try out our rain
stuff).
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| Can you spot the orc? |
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| This rock is translated as "Troll Church". |
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| View of Langidalur hut (from our hike) |
Most hiking I have done covers one or occasionally two types of landscapes. Around the Midwest it’s either a prairie or a forest hike generally. Out in the Western US you may have a desert hike or maybe a forest that gives way to alpine as you ascend. The thing about Iceland is each landscape would change drastically throughout the day/hike. The most dramatic example was when we hiked from Thorsmork to Skogar. At various times it seemed like we were in Colorado, Hawaii, the moon, a high alpine snow field, and Ireland. That level of variety in such a small area is something I’ve never experienced before (see below for sample pictures).
Day 4 - Thorsmork to Skogar. The hike from
Thorsmork to Skogar was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, but it was a pretty challenging day. The hike is about 30k (18 miles) of
constantly changing terrain. It seemed
that each section of the hike would throw a new challenge at us. The first part had great weather but a very
steep ascent. Once we neared the top we
faced some very sketchy trails with deep fall-offs on each side of
the narrow trail. When we were past that we had reached the highest point on
the trail so I figured the second half would be much easier. Not so much.
After that (at 4300 feet) we were in clouds and we faced was a constant light
rain. This fogged in the ice fields
which made it very difficult to navigate.
Honestly at some points we were just following footsteps in the
snow. When we stopped for lunch at the
hut near the top we were 5 hours in and pretty much completely soaked. Despite our weatherproof clothes the nature
of the rain (not falling straight down) plus our packs and having to adjust
gloves, hats, etc. made sure that the water was able to “sneak” inside our
clothes. We dried out as best we could,
ate our lunch, and then headed back out.
I knew the next few miles were downhill and I knew the snow fields were
behind us so I figured (again) we were in for a much more leisurely walk the
rest of the day. I forgot about the mud…
As we descended the rain kept coming down and once the trail
turned from volcanic rock to dirt the mud was everywhere. Footing became slippery and we were
constantly coming up with alternative paths to stay off the main one which was
all mud in some places. We pushed on in
the rain along the river for a few more miles of beautiful landscapes.
(Reading my description of the hike it sounds like it was
terrible but while it was challenging, it was also extraordinarily beautiful,
fun, and rewarding.)
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| Skogar - the destination |
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| Started out nice and rolling |
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| Looks like Na Pali Coast in Kauai |
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| The front of the glacier...maybe my favorite picture of the trip |
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| Very dicey section with no ropes and drop-offs on both sides |
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| Changing landscape as you go higher |
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| Where's the trail? Snowfields between the two glaciers |
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| Lava rock, just like in a grill |
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| Black sand beach at 4,000 feet |
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| When the trail disappears, follow someone I guess. |
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| On the right path... |
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| Bridge repair team clearly on vacation. |
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| Ireland/Scotland as we descend |
9 hours after we set off, wet and tired, we reached
Skogafoss; and a hotel room with showers and indoor plumbing. Woo-hoo!
Thankfully there was a hostel next store that had laundry facilities so
we could wash (and more importantly dry) a few things. I took a very comfortable bus ride back to
pick up a car we had dropped 30 miles away (where we got on the 4WD bus).
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| Skogafoss. One of the most photographed sites in Iceland |
A special mention regarding the waterfalls. There are certainly a lot of the “big name” waterfalls that attract the tour buses and the majority of the photos, but we also found dozens of completely “unmarked” waterfalls just as amazing but maybe a bit further off the main roads. Stunning.
Day 5 - South coast of Iceland. Our
second travel day was from Skogar to Skaftafell National Park about 100 miles
further east. On this day we walked to
the crashed DC-3 site on a black sand beach, hiked a bit on the coast around
Dyrhólaey, and visited the Jökulsárlón glacial lake. All of these are pretty well travelled sites
around Iceland and with the partial exception of the DC-3 site (which requires
a 2.5 mile walk each way to get to) are pretty easy to visit.
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| US Navy plane crashed in 1973 |
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| Puffins!! |
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| Jökulsárlón |
Our
next accommodation was a small hut near Skaftafell glacier. The hut was my favorite accommodation of the
trip (although the hotel in Reykjavik was far nicer). It was small but had just enough room for 4
beds, a small kitchenette, and a tiny bathroom with a shower. All we needed, but no more.
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| Home, part 2 |
For
the most part we found restaurants or just ate a lot of trail food but on our
last full night in Iceland we decided to use the stove top in our hut and try
out some of our camping pre-made meals we had brought with us. Red beans and rice, spaghetti in a bag, and “Mexican
rice thing” were on the menu (along with some Icelandic beer) and made for a
nice final dinner. It was all good and
we ate everything.
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| Last Dinner in Iceland |
Food is pretty expensive just about everywhere. Even the stuff you would think would not need
to be imported (lamb, fish, etc.) seems pricey.
I didn’t have a bad meal and the food was generally good; a few meals
being memorable, I’m guessing this is not a foodie dream trip. Food highlights in Reykjavik were my
chocolate croissant from a bakery and the yogurt that was made 3 days
earlier. The burgers we had on a working
farm/restaurant were also outstanding.
The
final travel day was really just a travel day.
We had to get back from the Skaftafell area all the way back to
Reykjavik for our flight. We did stop
for a quick visit to the Geothermal power plant near Hveragerði which had some
cool info regarding the geo-thermal power that powers most of the country and
also provides their source of hot water.
We made it back to the airport, returned the car, and boarded our
Icelandic Air flight back to the US. One
thing you forget is although it’s an international flight it’s really not that
long (5 or 6 hours depending on which way you are going). In addition we had a nice treat as it was a
rare clear day over Greenland and we were able to see that from the plane.
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| Greenland |
Oh, by the way… in July, despite the day being “only” 21
hours long, there is no darkness at night.
The closest you get is sort of a feeling of slightly less light for a
couple of hours (if you are awake at 1:30 am) but even that is tough to discern given the
normal cloud cover. I didn’t sleep much
during this week. Honestly, it wasn’t
bad, I usually slept 4-5 hours and that was enough for a day or so. I think I did have a long night after one of
our long hikes. I blame adrenaline more
than the light outside though. My first
3 nights home I slept at least 8 hours each night (which is a lot for me).
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| Picture taken at 1:30 am |
After being home for a couple weeks I keep thinking about Iceland. We saw as much as we could in a week but there is so much unexplored. Below is a map of where we were. Like I said, a lot left to explore. :-)
