Photo Friday: Icelandic Campervan Tour, Post #4

We're approaching the midpoint of the trip! Today we'll roam about the northlands.

Here are the links to post #1   post #2   and post #3 of the 2-week trip, for those who want to read it in order.  

I left off early on Day 5.

Day 5 (Sept. 15), continued:

Leaving Lake Myvatn behind me, I followed the Ring Road west a short distance to Hverir, a small developed area with substantial geothermal activity. One hint about this was the large geothermal power plant I drove past on the way, with a strikingly blue lake (the blue of pale turquoise) next to the road. The color of the lake was just one of the effects of having the power plant there, I think. Only later, after visiting Hverir, did I discover how extensive the power plant is.

Rt. 1 (the Ring Road) climbs above Blue Lake, and  some of the power plant buildings.

 
The sulfuric exhalations of the Hverir were the price to pay for the striking colors of the hillsides. Parking fees were somewhat high for really a fairly small feature (came out to about $11.50 US), but I didn't realize that until I was there, so set about getting my money's worth of scenery and sulfur fumes.

Sulfur and minerals color the soil and form new rocks.

Getting caught in the billows of sulfurous steam left me all choked up. Seriously, the stuff was thick and nasty.

There was a trail going up onto the ridge behind the springs, so I climbed up for the views. I also found the wind (fierce) and a nice rain shower (wet). 

The red speck in the parking lot is my campervan. I was early, ahead of the crowds--even by the time I finished my 2-mile hike the parking lot was much fuller.

On the skyline towards the left of the photo you can see steam from the Krafla power plant.

That wasn't enough thermal stuff for me, so I took the next side road up past the Krafla power plant to check out the Viti crater lake and other features.

Viti. Had to pay another $6.50 for parking here.

 
Across the valley, another short hike took me to Leirhnjúkur, a small volcanic hill with more colorful rock and a smaller blue lake.

With all the steam I deemed it wise to stay on the trails.

 

Blue pond

 

This area, like that around Lake Myvatn, experienced lava flows not too long ago. There was lots of broken and jumbled lava (aa), and in some areas, ropy pahoihoi lava, shoved into folds but not broken as it cooled. 

My big goal for the day, however, was the Dettifoss, another of the truly giant waterfalls in the vast rivers draining Iceland's highlands. Dettifoss is just the most popular of a series of three falls. I had my own favorite.

A walk from the carpark (free--part of Jokulsárgljúfur National Park) of just under a mile took me to the first viewpoint.

These rivers are moving a lot of earth down to the ocean. The volcanoes have to keep hard at it to keep the highlands high.

You can view the falls from either side of the river (with no passage from one to the other; I stuck to the west side, where the road was paved).

Look closely for the tiny human figures across the river to get a sense of the scale of this thing. My guidebook says in summer 400 cubic meters of water go over the edge every second.

Another mile upstream took me to the Selfoss, which was one of my favorite waterfalls. I felt bad for the people who didn't bother to walk the extra mile.

Selfoss

 

Selfoss. Morning would be a better time to visit these falls; I thought about coming back the next morning for better photos, but didn't.

One last shot of Selfoss.

A bit downstream is the 3rd fall, the Hafragilsfoss. You can hike between the falls (about 1.5 miles beyond the Dettifoss overlook), but I opted to drive the rather rugged dirt road to the upper overlook. There was a car in the parking lot, but I never saw the occupants, and had the place to myself, a rare treat.

The general look of Hafragilsfoss is very similar to that of Dettifoss.

 

 This spot was also well worth it for the view on down the canyon. This gorge is why this is a national park. A trail runs the length of the canyon, some 40+ miles. I wouldn't mind backpacking it.

Not sure if the blue is just an eddy or a side-stream.

Where the waters meet? The extra-blue spot on the edge looks like a stream coming in, but might just be where the water is calm enough for more of the silt to settle out--I saw no stream where I hiked.

There is a campground down in the canyon a little farther on where I'd hoped to camp, but it was signed for tents only, and I chose to respect that rule. It was a beautifully sheltered spot, something tenters always need. It would have been good to be there in the morning, though--there are some good trails. Again, I probably should have driven back there in the morning, but the onward lure was too much for me.

A bonus of moving on to the campground at Asbyrgi was that I was in camp early enough to do laundry--which was included for free with my very modest camp fee--hooray for national parks! The sun even came out, and the camp was sheltered, so I finally was able to pull out my table and chair and enjoy sitting outside for a time. 

And though it was small and hard to see among the clouds, I saw the aurora!

Over the course of the day and my 3 hikes, I racked up about 8 miles of hiking, which also made for good sleeping!

 
Day 6 (Sept. 16): Asbyrgi 

I covered a lot of ground this day, including my farthest north--on this trip or any other. I won't get to all of that in this post, given how long it already is, but will finish up my time in the national park. 

The campground at Asbyrgi is just inside the mouth, not of the main canyon through which the mighty Jokulsá flows, but the horseshoe of cliffs that give Asbyrgi its name. As there is a small lake at the end of the horseshoe, and the morning was reasonably nice, I drove to the end of the road and checked the place out. If I hadn't done so many miles the previous day before arriving, it would have been a nice walk up there from the campground.

The short walk from the end of the road passed through an autumnal forest.

 According to legend, or at least the imagination of one poet, the canyon was formed when one of the 8 hooves of Odin's flying horse touched down here. Science says that both this canyon and the one the river still flows through were formed 2-5000 years ago, when glaciers formed vast lakes which drained with amazing force when their dams burst. (For those who care, this is pretty much how the Channels Badlands of eastern Washington State were formed, though much longer ago).

Pick whichever explanation you like, the result is a pretty canyon with a nice little lake.

More a pond than a lake.

 Once I had my fill of Asbyrgi, I was off to the north!

Crossing this bridge (a fancy one-lane bridge, unlike many) was my shift to the far north.

 Next up: Farthest north, sea birds, and sea stacks.

 

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 ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2025 

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