Myvatn

It has been a busy couple of days. Tuesday morning, we left Eastern Fjords for Myvatn (Me- vat) in the North. This quickly turned into an action packed day as Myvatn is located in the Krafla Volcano region and there is a lot to see and do. This area has huge differences in the landscape when comparing it to the rest of the country. There are huge lava fields with nothing but ash, sand, rock, and boulders. In between the lava fields are sometimes fields of grass with sheep grazing.

Selfoss

Our first stop along the way to Myvatn was at a waterfall called Dettifoss. It was a beautiful, strange thing to see as it literally sits in the middle of a lava field wasteland. The wind picks up the fine particles of ash, sand, and dirt and blows them all around you as you walk the 1km out to the platform to view the falls. Dettifoss is huge and the sound it makes is astounding. Because it travels through the lava field, it is the dirtiest looking waterfall we’ve seen since arriving in Iceland. Just a short of a kilometer from Detifoss is a smaller, but still amazing, waterfall called Selfoss. We didn’t walk all the way to this one because we knew we had a lot on our plate that we wanted to accomplish on our way too and while in Myvatn. So, we got to a spot where we could snap some cool photos and then headed back to the car park.

Steam vent with sulfur water.

Rocky steam vent

As we continued on our way to Myvatn, we had to do a quick U-turn because out of nowhere came Hverir. We definitely smelt it at the same time that we saw it. Hverir is an open area and part of a mountainside that is filled with steaming vents that release a sulpheric smell and create areas of mudpots around them. The areas that are unsafe to walk on have been roped off and there are signs everywhere saying to stay on the path. However, I saw someone dumb enough to ignore all of these warning signs. I saw him look around to see who was watching and then hop the low-lying rope barrier. He didn’t make it long inside the mudpot before getting out of there. They’re called mudpots because the steam coming out is hot enough to melt the soil around the vent. So, this man sunk down to his ankles but luckily didn’t get hurt. After wandering around this foreign landscape for a bit and taking all the sulfuric smell one person can handle in a short time, we back tracked just a bit and headed up for the lookout on to Krafla Geothermal Power Station.

We didn’t do too much here. Primarily, we went up to the lookout platform overlooking the mountainside where the station has been set up. Krafla is technically just the name of the mountain, but the surrounding area and power plant have also been lumped in with this name. Krafla has various fissures that have opened up a couple of different times throughout history. This is what created the lava fields surrounding Krafla and Myvatn. The last time the fissures opened up, it spit magma out on and off for nine years from 1975-1984. It was also during this time that they started construction on the Krafla Geothermal Power Station. They were both braver and crazier than what I would have been!

We passed one more point of interest as we headed into the Myvatn area but didn’t stop at this one. It was just a beautiful, toxic pond along the roadside. The pond is leftover from some type of processing plant that someone tried to set up there. In the past, farmers tried to grow potatoes in that area, but they came out of the ground already boiled. They also drilled holes to see if there could be a power plant built on the site. One of the holes emits steam that is 200 degrees Celsius despite being 2300m deep. I think people have realized that this particular mountainside is not one that can be messed with!

The huge fissure above Grjotagja.

After a busy morning, we finally arrived in the hub town of Reykjalid and inquired about a hike we were interested in at the visitor’s center. After getting where the trailhead was located and refilling our water bottles, we headed out. Our original intent was to go about 8km one way and hit up 3 different sights along the way. After the first 2km along a strange path through a dwarf birch like ‘forest’ with huge fissures in the ground and then walking through a lava field, we arrived at Grjotagja. This is a cave filled with 45 degree Celsius water. Because it’s on private land, you cannot bathe here but you can go down into it and take a look around. The water is stunningly clear, and you can feel the heat from the water as soon as you get down into the cave. There is a huge fissure running over the top of the cave. Myvatn is also located on the North Atlantic ridge. In some ways the terrain reminds me of that at Thingvellir National Park.

Hverfjall from a distance.

At this point, the trail was not very clearly marked, and we headed in the wrong direction before getting stopped by a fence. We were very confused because we could see the next spot where we wanted to go but couldn’t figure out how we were supposed to get there without the trailhead. Over some peanut m&ms we contemplated what to do and decided to head back to Grjotagja. Scott ended up finding the trailhead and so we continued on our way walking through lava fields to Hverfjall. This is a huge tephra crater that completely dominates the landscape. There’s a path that seems to go straight up the side of it. The signboard at the bottom said there was a path around the very top of it that you could walk around. There’s also a second trail that leads to the bottom and heads in the direction of the third spot that we wanted to visit.

We decided to skip hiking all the way to the third spot because it was still 4km away, and we were getting hungry. We did hike to the top with the intention of possibly walking the trail at the top. So, we made the climb straight up to the top. Even though the wind had been blowing us around all day, it was nothing in comparison to what we got at the top of the crater. It was literally pushing me around and totally freaked me out. We snapped a couple of photos and turned right around and headed back down. It was interesting to see, but I’m not sure I would go up to the top again.

Dimmuborgir lava steam vent.

We did make it to our last destination of the day, Dimmuborgir, after a delicious dinner. Dimmuborgir is a super cool area. They believe it was created when lava flowed into a lake or marshland. The water started to boil causing steam jets to rise up through the lava. As the steam cooled the lava, it created the pillars. They also believe the pillars are hollow. After reading this description in the guidebook, I imagined skinny pillars, but most of the pillars are huge! We wandered around some of the trails wandering around and sometimes into the pillars. This was by far one of my favorite spots of the day.