South-East Iceland  2024

We talked to  a couple from our town on Vancouver Island over breakfast, but most of the campers at Fossardalur were asleep when we hit the road. Our first stop was a look around Djúpivogur. We followed the #1 south and spotted a herd of reindeer above the road, so we pulled over for a better look. Apparently reindeer were imported to Iceland in the 1700's and they number somewhere around 7,000 in the north east of the island. We drove off the highway when we came across Fauskasandur Beach. It was a real character beach that doesn't seem to get much attention from tourists. Further along the #1, we pulled off at Krossanesfjall for another look around and views of the long stretching Hvalnes Beach. We cut off the main road and drove on gravel a ways to reach the Golden Valley of Hvannagil. I had a gpx track that suggested looping through "Raftagill" but as we walked up the small river valley, a valley to the left (west) beckoned and we did an atmospheric 5km loop around "Melrakkafell" that would more than satisfy most walkers.

 Back on the Ring Road, we stopped in at the trail head for a short in and out walk to Skútafoss and a beautiful valley.  We reached the Höfn and drove around the outskirts, picked up groceries at the well provisioned Nettó and then checked into the well-run hostel for the night. Höfn is the gateway to the South Coast icefields and tourist numbers noticeably increased, for good reason.

The clouds were low and heavy when we set out from  Höfn in the morning. We walked through a foggy moss covered landscape to complete a 10km  loop to the toe of the Skálafellsjökull glacier. We could have done with fewer low clouds but we had reasonable views of the glacier. 

By the time we reached the parking lot for the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon in the early afternoon, the tourists were in full flood. Views of the upper glacier remained obscured in cloud. We drove across the road over to  Diamond Beach. Despite the tourist numbers, it was a fascinating location with crashing waves and all kinds of growlers (ice remains from Jökulsárlón lagoon) that had floated out to sea and then were pushed back onto the black sand beach. Sheila felt a little rushed from this fantastic place, but we had more to cover that day.

Further along the #1, we stopped at the Fjallsjökull glacier for a short walk. Then we had another amazing 6km hike (with almost 400m elevation gain) to gain views of the incredible Mulagljufur Canyon.  We were both tired from the day  when we reached Svínafelli campground in light drizzle. The camp common area filled up and by the time we ate dinner; it was elbow to elbow in the dining area. That did promote conversing with other visitors on tour.

We were in the heart of the busy tourist zone and we got off to an early start from the Svínafelli  campground. We dropped in at the nearby Svínafellsjökull Glacier for a 3km amble that included meeting up with sheep at the glacial lagoon. Further down the road, we parked at the Skaftafell complex and we made a  10km loop walk that took in  Svartifoss  falls (not super impressive) and an overlook of Skaftafell Glacier. We wouldn't consider it one of the best hikes but the overlook view was impressive and the clouds lifted just enough to see far up the glacier.  

Next on the agenda was the Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon which turned out to be a busy place, including coach tours. The walk way was paved and older trails that would have provided different views were roped off. Apparently Justin Bieber had recorded a music video there and that had triggered considerable interest so local authorities had tightened up the walking trails. We pulled off the highway and drove into the Þakgil campground. The drive was borderline 4WD (possible with 2WD) and we entered a mossy world like none other that we had been to. We pitched our tent and wandered around the immediate area and the campground gradually filled up with many Dacia Dusters.

We had breakfast and put the tent away and we were on the trail shortly after 7:00am. We mostly followed the "yellow trail" (at the end of the loop, we took a shortcut on the "purple trail"). We called it the Fairy trail and much of the early landscape was clearly the realm of fairies. The clouds remained low as we reached a glacier but we continued along until we reached amazing overviews of the Kötlujökull Glacier. It was a superb  hike of 15km with 600m of ascent. We encountered two people on the final descent back to the campground.

We drove back out to the #1 into Vik where the sun was shining. We went for a short walk at Víkurfjara Black Sand Beach (Vik Beach) and then drove west on #1 to reach Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach where tourists were in large numbers. The beach offered cool basalt columns and views of the sea stacks. We camped at Vik (pronounced Veek) in the tenting area, which was below small cliffs and nesting birds. The Vik common kitchen had a good set-up and it didn't get crazy busy like some of the other campgrounds. The Vik setting is wonderful.

We reached the Skógafoss falls (short walk from the carpark) by 8:00am. There is an open campground there and at that time of day just a few people were near the falls. If we were to single out just one waterfalls in Iceland, this might be the one. There is a staircase that leads to the top of the falls that leads to what is called the  Fimmvorduhals hike. It is possible to continue on and stay at huts and exit at the north end of the Fimmvorduhals at Básar, Þórsmörk. There is even a bus service that brings walkers back to  Skógafoss late in the day, but we opted to do an out-and-back walk along the Skógá River past a series of beautiful waterfalls and one particularly interesting canyon.  We walked about 7km up when we felt satiated by waterfalls before turning around  to make it a 14km hike.  The lower sections of the trail were busier by then and Skógafoss had quite a few onlookers by the time we returned to our car. 

Mid-afternoon, we drove to the Kronan supermarket in Hvolsvelli to buy some groceries and then we went to the DalsSel Farm Guesthouse for the evening. The farmer spent a couple of hours in the common room talking to guests and we learned quite a bit.  The farm was only 14km from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano that disrupted European flights in 2010 but the wind blew mostly the other way from them. 

The following morning, we backtracked along the Ring Road to visit the Gljufrabui waterfall. We were the only people there.