I love being outdoors and Iceland is a place I can revel in amazing views, wildlife, and the wild swings in weather. The first post I wrote about exploring the landscape of Iceland is HERE. It included photos of the Northern Lights.
Since then I’ve enjoyed exploring more of the northern part of the country and wanted to share a few of those adventures. There are a lot of photos here and I hope you enjoy them. I had to choose from so many, but these were some of my favorite spots. I made these trips with the best of friends and though you don’t see them in the photos, know that I was enjoying time with three of the best humans I have ever known.
I love open views, horizon, and feeling like I can see forever. I grew up in New Mexico which is like a warmer Iceland in many ways. I love being able to see the horizon, to view mountains in long stretches, and of course I love being above treeline in my current home state of Colorado. When I visit relatives in places like Michigan and Mississippi where there are a lot of trees, I get lost easily and I feel hemmed in. Many people have commented that the photos I’ve posted on social media of this trip look very stark, but I love that feeling of open space.
A view from Borgarvirki.
Searching for Seals
I know that seals are something that people in Nordic countries and Scotland see a lot, but we don’t have them in my landlocked state. I wanted to see some and so we took a day trip to the Vatnsnes Peninsula and the Icelandic Seal Center. The first overlook where we thought we might find them was this one. Are those rocks out on that sand bar?
Vatnsnes Peninsula, Iceland. Are those rocks in the water?
Nope. They’re not rocks! The funny thing is that we pulled off here to see a famous rock and there was a busload of kids headed for the viewing dock and so we decided to walk down to the beach until they left. We never would have seen those seals if it weren’t for that busload of teenagers. They missed the seals, but we didn’t! There were probably 100 seals hauled out on this sand bar and a couple beaches farther up.
Seals on the Vatnsnes Peninsula, Iceland
We did eventually see the rock the teens were looking at. The white you see on it in the photos? Gulls nesting.
Vatnsnes Peninsula. Hvitserkur
This lighthouse is north of Hvammstangi.
Lighthouse on the Vatnsnes peninsula
I never get tired of watching the ocean. This day we were driving around the Skagi peninsula. The hay bales left in the field likely from last fall were striking and they made an interesting pattern.
Hay bales left in the field on the Skagi peninsula, Iceland
We visited another lighthouse at the old town site of Kálfshamarsvík. This town was inhabited from about 1900 to 1930 when it was abandoned as fishing changed. The houses were made of turf and the remains exist. The turf patterns I posted in THIS blog post were replicas. The ones below are from original houses that people lived in.
Sod patterns in a ruined house, Kálfshamarsvík, Iceland
At this site there is another lighthouse and fantastic views of the basalt columns that can be found in many places in Iceland.
The lighthouse at Kálfshamarsvík. Note the basalt columns vertically in front and tilted to the left of the building.
This waterfall was one of my favorite spots. There is no sign nor can you see it from the road. Our friends knew about it because they’d randomly pulled off there before to watch the birds that nest in these cliffs. It is a place with no tourists and lots of birds. I could have watched the water and the gulls all day. It felt like our own secret waterfall and I enjoyed it much more than the vastly bigger ones we saw the next day.
Waterfall Skagi peninsula
There were so many sunsets. I took many photos including time lapses of them and will make some sort of video to show you some of them soon. This is just steps away from the Textile Center. The geese loved this spot and could be found there every evening. These are Graylag Geese.
Greylag Geese in Blönduós, Iceland at sunset.
Ocean view near Sauðárkrókur
The best hot pot ever
We wanted to visit the pools at Reykir-Grettislaug and they did not disappoint!
Driving north out of Sauðárkrókur toward Grettislaug. Friendly Icelandic horses.
This is my style of hot pot. There are thermal baths all over Iceland and they are very popular and part of the culture. Every town has pools which are of course full of geothermal water. This natural outdoor pool at Reykir-Grettislaug was exactly the right thing for me. People who had been there as well as the pool’s Facebook page warned us that the road can be very rough, but by New Mexico standards, which was how all of us were judging it, it was a fantastic gravel road. Any passenger car driven by someone who knows about gravel should be fine. Of course conditions can change over the year and I wouldn’t be surprised if snow made the road impassible. Fortunately it wasn’t snowing this day.
Soaking in the pool at Grettislaug
One of the pools at Grettislaug
The longest fantastic day ever
We had a very long day where we drove east to see what we could see. I think we drove perhaps 500 km that day and hats off to our intrepid driver Kurt for taking the wheel the whole way. This was the day we visited the Gilhagi mill which I talked about HERE.
Iceland has tough weather. I think we got lucky in April because we had many sunny days. Sometimes people go there for a month or more and never see the tops of the mountains. But this day was special. It was blue sunny sky all day long. It was 15 degrees C at one point and for once I was very happy I hadn’t put on my long johns. That might be the best day they have all year there and I’m happy we got to enjoy it on a day when we were out sightseeing. Here are some of the things we saw. This was the only day we did touristy things on the Ring Road and we were also lucky that we did not see a single tour bus all day long.
Goðafoss Waterfall
Skútustaðir. There were pseudo craters here that we walked around and also took a hike on this bird trail.
Our main goal was Námafjall Hverir. This is a geothermal area full of fumaroles and mud pots. It is a rather other-worldly place though I will admit I’ve not spent much time in Yellowstone. It smelled very strongly of sulphur. The colors were just fantastic and the sounds of the bubbling mud and steaming fumaroles was both funny and fantastic.
Geothermal area at Namafjall Hverir, Iceland
Geothermal area at Namafjall Hverir, Iceland
We drove on and stopped at the huge Dettifoss falls. I loved the patterns in the snow at the edge of the falls the best. The rainbow was a bonus on a sunny day.
Dettifoss Waterfall. A sunny day brings a rainbow at a waterfall.
After Dettifoss we visited the Gilhagi Farm and then drove through Húsavík. That was an adorable town, but we only had time for a quick photo of the schooner in the harbor before we raced back to Akureyri to try to get a pizza on a Saturday night. Several hours later we fell into bed back in Blönduós after a 17 hour day of adventuring.
The harbor at Húsavík.
This milkshake made up for the fact that there were no gluten free pizza crusts. Akureyri.
The smallest things
Besides large horizons, I also love to look at the detail of things. There were so many tiny growing things, patterns in rocks, lichen, and shells. I found many sea urchin remains and their patterning was fascinating.
There were sea urchins around most of the beaches. I wonder if they were dropped by birds. The patterns are fantastic both inside and out.
Moss growing next to the hot pot at Grettislaug
A chicken sighting at the geothermal area near Myvatn.
The harbor in Blönduós seems little used but there is much interesting there including lots of birds.
Lichen grows everywhere here. The colors and patterns are fascinating. This is in the Reykjavik harbor.
This is a view of what they call Old Blönduós. This is the original town and there are still a hotel and guesthouses as well as a shop there. It has been a wonderful town to stay in for a month.
Old Blönduós, Iceland
Thanks for coming along with for some adventures in the north of Iceland. I have more stories to tell you in coming weeks about yarn, a 46m tapestry, sheep, lambs, and my experience of this beautiful country.
Past blog posts about this trip to Iceland and my artist residency at the Icelandic Textile Center are here:
Iceland Here I come! Icelandic Textile Center Residency
Arriving in Iceland
Ice, Snow, and Northern Lights
The First Tapestry Weaving at my Icelandic Textile Center Residency
Weaving a Black Sand Beach and a visit to the Gilhagi mini mill
All photos are mine and are copyrighted. All were taken with an iPhone 12 Pro.