THE FOURTH IN THE NORTH
- Joelle McDonald
- Jul 3, 2022
- 8 min read
Djúpivogur • Lagarfljot • Gufufoss • Seyðisfjörður• Rjúkandafoss Waterfall • Námaskarð Pass • Víti Crater • Krafla Power Plant • Vogar • Grótagjá
Happy 4th of July from Iceland! We woke up this morning knowing our day wouldn’t feature any fireworks or parades, but hopeful it would at least feature easy to drive roads. All night our van, which we had nestled into a hill for maximum wind protection, was rocking with the forces of gusts sweeping through our fishing village home-for-the-night. Without earplugs sleep would have been elusive. To the inventor of earplugs, I send you my warmest regards.
Planning and Leaving Djúpivogur ---Map Point A--- I refused to run in the absolutely brutal wind this morning, so it was more simple than most. Once we were up we only had to make our breakfast, rehydrate our lunch packets so they would be ready for us, and spend at least an hour deliberating on the best road to drive. Deciding on our route for the day took a lot of brain power. Today was slated to be our longest day of driving: 5 hours. Last night we drove the first hour and a half of our route for today, so I expected for it to be much shorter, around 3.5 hours. However, Google Maps informed me that our drive would still be 5 hours. I don’t know how I got my initial estimate, but I was definitely wrong, so thank goodness we had gotten a head-start yesterday. 6.5 hours of driving today would not be fun. Still, we had two paths ahead of us, each taking about 5 hours, but giving us different sights, stops, and driving conditions. Option 1: Stay on the Ring Road and see the coast - More scenery like we had on our drive to Djúpivogur - Wind that is potentially just as bad as yesterday - The guidebook says the sights, towns along the road, aren’t anything special - The whole road is paved and we know that it will be very passable (ignoring potential wind) Option 2: Drive Road 95 through the Mountains - Gets very little traffic - Partially unpaved and can be terrible in places - We couldn’t drive all the Eastern fjords - Likely less windy - New scenery: mountains and one of Iceland’s only forested areas - Could visit Lagarflot, a very long lake said to be home to a lake monster
Both had pros, but most importantly they each had cons that could make our drive a lot more sketchy. It was a blind gamble either way. Ultimately, scarred by the wind from the drive the night before and looking forward to seeing new scenery, we ended up opting for the inland route. Pulling out of our campsite at 11 am, the wind immediately hit us. According to the wind tracker we would only be in bad wind for about 30 minutes, so we hoped for relief soon. We stopped the car a few times to look at the intimidatingly grand fjords and lava rock filled mountains. When we got out of the car at these stops the wind was truly blasting. For reference, Hannah—yelling so I could hear her over the gusts—said “My eyebrows are flapping in the wind.”
Driving the Mountain Roads ---Map Point A to B--- Eventually we reached the turn for Road 95 and initially it was all paved, but.. oh no… the wind. It hadn’t gone away like Iceland’s wind website said it would. Then we reached the gravel road, not horrible but definitely some potholes. Then came the freezing rain. These weren’t the relatively good driving conditions we had been looking for. We began to regret our decision and I asked Hannah, who was behind the wheel, many times if she wanted to turn around and go the other way. She was confident we could continue, though the drive may be unpleasant. As we made it deeper inland we entered a basin of mountains. Beautiful is a word that gets thrown around a lot, so it feels too small to describe the view, but the mountains were truly beautiful. I started to compare the map with our route and the scenery around us. Confused I looked for a low gap between the mountains where the road might go, but there was nothing. Only towering masses around us. “Umm, Hannah. I think that we are driving straight over that mountain.” In most conditions that would be no cause for alarm, but being alone at the summit of a mountain during a storm made me feel we would be a little exposed. The road up was also incredibly steep gravel with no rail and many 180) turns. Without hill hold on our van it would be a very bad place to have any problems. The view from the top of the mountain was incredible, and I enjoyed it through my internal battle of awe and awareness of our precarious position. Lagarfljot Lake ---Map Point B--- Eventually and thankfully we made it to a paved road that took us toward the town of Vallanes and went straight down to the lake, hoping for a lookout. We found a little dirt road pull off that led down to a gorgeous spot on the lake, hopefully not on private land. There was a picnic table where we planned to eat lunch but then the cold set into our bones we instead opted to pull the car up farther to take in the view from our warm van. In front of us was a sea of purple flowers and pine trees leading up to the lake shore, peppered with lava rocks. The lake ahead is narrow, but extremely long and river-like. May believe the Wyrm of Lagarfljot, a lake monster, dwells beneath the surface. It was last sighted less than 10 years ago. While we ate, we FaceTimed our mom. We told her all about our hazardous drives the night before in the wind and this morning in the wind and over the mountain. She really didn’t like that we were driving in such rough conditions, but we told her that we were through all of the gnarly roads and weather for the day, and likely for the rest of the trip. Turns out, we were wrong. Gufufoss Waterfall and Seyðisfjörður ---Map Point C and D--- Next stop: the largest town of the Eastern Fjords: Seyðisfjörður. According to our guidebook, if you only visit one, this should be it, so we begin the drive to our hour-long detour to get there. We realize that, again, we will be driving directly over the top of a mountain, then descending to reach the town, though thankfully this road is paved and has some guardrails. In good weather it would be an easy drive, but today the area is windy, with rain and snow falling. Hannah is a great driver, but her stomach was churning for the whole drive. At the top of the mountain we drive next to a large body of water. Our conversation about it went something like this:
Hannah: Wow, look at all that water. It is so blue! Me: I bet that’s the ocean. Hannah: On the top of a mountain? Me: Mmmm, you make a compelling point.
During our descent to the town I spot a sign reading “Gufufoss”. Every waterfall name is Iceland ends in “foss” (because foss means waterfall in Icelandic, imagine that) so we pulled over to check out what ended up being a really big fall. Our visit was brief because despite it being the warmest month of the year, the air was freezing and the falling snow was making our clothes wet and cold. In town we immediately spot the thing most tourists like us come here to see: a rainbow-painted street leading to a baby blue church, Seyðisfjarðarkirkja. Along the “downtown” street (it maybe has eight small buildings) some building are constructed in a traditional Scandinavian style and two others are covered with exciting murals. The town is small, with only 300 houses, but there are art installations throughout much of it. We park near the church and pull on every layer we brought, which for me was five layers on top and five on the bottom. I could barely move, but the cold reached me even through all those layers. We took a few pictures and set out to walk around the town when, five minutes into our journey we realized we could avoid the miserable weather by instead seeing it by car. Mývatn Sites ---Map Points E, F, G, and H--- We returned over the mountain pass that brought us to Seyðisfjörður and stopped for a chocolate bar to warm our spirits now that we were out of the snow. Finally, after braving many hours of bad weather we were on our way to more pleasant roads… almost. There was nobody on the road. We passed a car maybe once every ten minutes. With strong wind still pulling at our car, Hannah took full advantage to drive in the middle of the road, giving her more room to recover when big gusts came. There aren’t many places in the world where you can drive down the middle of a road for that far with no consequences. The drive was uneventful, only stopping briefly to get a look at Rjúkandafoss Waterfall (Map point E). As we came into the Mývatn region, the landscape began to change. We left any hint of vegetation in the rearview mirror and vast expanses of absolutely nothing swelled around us. There was so much nothingness on all sides that we understood why people travel all this way to see it. The lack of anything to see is nearly as impressive as there being many things to see. As our GPS ticked down the kilometers to the Mývatn lake area, the earth around us began to steam. Little plumes seemed to be visible in all directions. Our next stop was one particularly steamy area, Námaskarð Pass (Map point F). Here hot springs and fumaroles were littered across a patch of about one mile. It is a geothermal area connected to the Krafla volcano’s underground system. The sulfuric smell was overwhelming, but the color of the water was a beautiful, deep turquoise. A word of warning: in hot spring areas the bluer the water, the hotter the water. Do not touch (unless you want to lose an appendage). Our next area of interest, Víti Volcano (Map point G) and the Krafla Geothermal Power Plant (Map point H). The Víti Crater—Víti meaning ‘hell’ in Icelandic—was formed early in the Mývatn fires of 1724, a destructive set of fires caused by volcanic activity. Inside of the crater is a deep blue pool. The color contrast is stark. On the drive down from the crater to the Ring Road we pause to take a picture of the power plant. It is an impressive collection of small buildings. What sticks out most to me is how it adds beauty to the landscape. The power plants I am familiar with are associated with dirty, black air and ugly, industrial buildings. The Krafla Geothermal Power Plant is completely different: clean, simple, quaint. "Evening" (9:30 PM - 1:00 AM) at Vogar Campsite ---Map Points I and J--- We finally pull into our campsite (Map point I) for the next two nights at about 9:30. After going through some photos, I am getting ready to go for my run at 10:30 pm (I’d like to thank the midnight sun for sponsoring my training). It is still perfectly light out and with two layers on top and bottom I feel wonderfully warm. I found a dirt road right next to our campsite and ran it for a few mils, stumbling upon a small parking lot. Our guidebook said there was something this way, but I didn’t realize how close it was. I approached Grótagjá (Map point J), feet pounding. If you are a Game of Thrones fan (myself not included), you may recognize Grótagjá as the filming location for a reportedly steamy scene in the Season 3 episode named“Kissed by Fire.” I paused my watch to crawl down to the cave. Immediately I notice how warm it is. The water is 109-115ºF. It’s so dark inside that almost couldn’t tell there was water in it. The sun is low enough in the sky that it doesn’t reach the hole leading into the cave. I crawled out then ran on top of the fissure on a roped path. From there you could see the deep crack in the earth that created the Grótagjá. Sightseeing on runs makes it feel like I am discovering things all on my own, despite having already seen the guidebook mention them. I decided I had better take Hannah back here tomorrow.
Great photos! 😍