Iceland | Part 1 of 2

Like any sensible photographer-traveler, I have had my sights set on Iceland for quite some time. Neither Cassie nor I remember exactly how we started talking about Iceland with each other, but suddenly, as we are prone to doing, we had dates and flights and were making it happen. We were visiting in the beginning of April, which I’m sure was springtime in my head but was much more like late winter in reality. That was just fine by us, as the weather was remarkably clear despite earlier forecasts of rain/snow all week. We also loved getting to see the variety of landscapes partly covered in snow. It also meant we saw relatively few other people. As we drove around the country, we were usually the only car on the road, and there would only be a handful of other people at each stop. I’m sure it’s a completely different scenario once summer hits its stride.

Our itinerary included six days in Iceland, and though we read that you should really have at least seven in order to make it all the way around on the Ring Road (the one main road that loops around the entire country), we did it all anyway, rushing a little bit through the last two days to get back to Reykjavík. But it worked out beautifully. You can scroll all the way to the bottom to see our itinerary and little illustration of the many many points we stopped along the way. But let’s get going with the photographs!

We were off to a spectacular beginning before we even arrived. On the flight to Iceland, the flight attendant came and told us to look out the window. The Northern Lights! I wasn’t even expecting to see any auroras while we were in Iceland. I thought they were mostly confined to wintertime. To be honest, it looked kind of like wispy white clouds in real life. But it’s green when captured on camera! (Thanks, Sony for the ISO 64,000).

Upon landing, it was 6:30am so we were set up for a full day of driving ahead of us. We picked up our little rental car and headed in to Reykjavík for some breakfast.

Cassie finds her first animal to pet. (This will be a theme of the trip).

We meant to go to The Blue Lagoon next and mistakenly thought it was near Reykjavík, but nope! That Blue Lagoon is a corporate-looking gym. So then we retraced our steps back to where we started to go to the actual Blue Lagoon in Grindavik.

I didn’t take my ‘real camera’ into the water with me, but you could if you wanted! We purchased our timed tickets to the Blue Lagoon ahead of time, but they didn’t seem to care that we were half an hour late due to our unintended detour.

The Blue Lagoon is so blue because of the silica in the water, which feels silky when you’re in it but becomes very crusty in your hair once it dries. You’re required to shower before entering the lagoon, and they provide conditioner to pre-coat your hair as a protective barrier. We still had very stiff hair afterwards, and it took a couple days to return to normal. But the actual lagoon experience was even better than we expected– not too crowded and really surreal looking. Plus a free mud mask. We were glad to have paid the pricey entrance fee for the experience.

After a very relaxing soak, we continued on our journey to Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park. This was once the site of Iceland’s parliament starting all the way back in the 10th century. It’s also where the American continental plate meets the Eurasian.

This is the actual spot where Europe meets America. The water is extremely clear, and you can book a snorkeling excursion here (people were going right when we were here despite the very cold temperatures).

Also in this park, our first waterfall viewing! The first of many, many, many. Its name is Öxarárfoss. Foss = falls.

And we began seeing Icelandic horses on the side of the road! It’s usually quite difficult to stop right by them since there aren’t many pullovers. But we stopped to say hi to these.

Finally, we were ready to call it a day at our first lodgings on a working farm! Efstidalur II.

Cassie pets animals #2: baby cow. #3: farm dogs.

Our cute little cabin for the night.

We had dinner right at their restaurant, with delicious cheese from the cows downstairs.

We had just flown all night and arrived this morning, and I managed to stay up til sunset! Cassie was asleep by now.

But then I popped up a couple hours later to check if we could see any Northern Lights. Indeed! Very cool.

Then we were ready for day two, starting with a little roadside visit to Geysir, which is, yes, a geyser. Actually, a series of geysers in a very geothermally active field!

Geysir itself doesn’t spout very often at all, but Strokkur spouts every few minutes!

Next, Gullfoss. A much much bigger waterfall than the one from the day before. Which we would have stayed to enjoy longer if it weren’t blisteringly cold and windy outside!

But after looking at it for a couple seconds, we ducked back in to the restaurant for one of Cassie’s favorite food highlights of the trip: lamb stew. It was great, especially on this cold day. Seriously, people talk just as much about the stew as the waterfall in the reviews.

Next, we went in to the Lava Centre, a museum all about the volcanoes of Iceland. Again, we were the only people here. We settled in to watch this introductory video, which turned out to be wordless, terrifying, booming explosions of volcanoes all over Iceland. There are 30 active volcano systems in this small country. It made me think, no one should be here, let alone live here. But then again, maybe it’s good to feel the immediacy of nature in this way?

The exhibits were all very high-tech and well done. Also filled with booming hallways with sensors to go off once you’re inside, sort of like a horror film. We learned a lot about volcanoes! Including the fact that explosions are measured by both lava flow and tephra volume (like ash, debris). For instance, the famous volcano that just errupted in 2010 and disrupted European air travel for weeks, Eyjafjallajökull, was mostly tephra and not much lava.

Next, we were on to our next fosses, Seljalandsfoss, which is surrounded by a cave trail so you can go and walk behind it.

And then just down the road, there’s Gljúfrabúi, which is this little cave with a river in front of it (pictured on the right). You can walk through the river (thanks waterproof hiking boots!) to go inside the cave and see the waterfall! I don’t have Sony photos of this, but we did go inside and I was totally delighted by the experience.

 

And then, down the road, Eyjafjallajökull itself! As far as I can figure out, this is how it’s pronounced: eya = HEYa but without the h. FYAT-la YO-kootl. Did I get it? Icelandic is hard.

Next foss! Skógafoss. Rainbows and fosses really are a thing.

We climbed a bunch of stairs to see this one from the top too. And you can actually continue hiking along the source of the falls since they’ve made it into a long hiking trail.

Next, Reynisfjara Beach, which is very iconic and filled with signs that tell you not to turn your back to the ocean because sneaker waves frequently sweep people out to sea, and a lot of people have died that way. Beautiful and deadly. Iceland.

Iconic basalt columns.

A very jagged cave.

Every single town has a cute little church.

Epic skies at the end of day two.

We checked into our hotel, Icelandair Hotel Vik. And then for dinner, Restaurant Sudur Vik: pizza, arctic char (it’s a thing here), and skyr, which is a type of yogurty Icelandic cheese, made into a skyr cheesecake.

Then it was time for day 3 of our trip, a.k.a. my favorite day of  the whole trip. We drove through these wintry scenes, again, the only car on the road.

Very stark beauty with water running through these black sands and white snow.

A little glamour shot with our little Puffin. (That’s what we named our car– we did not see any Puffins this trip.)

Then we tried to go visit the Justin Bieber music video canyon, but apparently thanks to the popoularity of Justin Bieber and badly behaving tourists the area was overtouristed, so they’ve closed it for now. Seriously though, at many stops we saw people ignoring barricades, throwing rocks at frozen lakes, and so forth. What is wrong with people? This is why we can’t have nice things.

Looking down at the road that would’ve taken us to the canyon.

Undeterred by one small detour, we went across the road to go look at some mossy lava fields up close.

Seriously so wacky looking.

And then it was time for a little hike to Svartifoss, black falls, within the Vatnajökull National Park. There it is, a little hole in the earth!

Also very iconic looking!

Afterwards, our itinerary said to stop by the Svinafellsjökull, a glacier just five minutes down the road. But we were encountered with a crazy gravel road with large bumps and ditches everywhere. We weren’t sure if this was right, if we were supposed to go down here with our tiny little compact car… so we proceeded very slowly… and what was probably only a mile took us about 15 minutes to get through.

But as we crested the hill from the parking lot and saw this glacier, Cassie teared up and said it was the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen. So. That drive was definitely worth it.

Very cool!

Same place, looking back the other way.

Next, we drove over to see Jökulsárlón, a glacier lagoon which empties into the ocean.

And at the mouth of that lagoon, a spectacular black sand beach known as Diamond Beach, because chunks of glacier wash up here and sparkle on the beach like giant diamonds!

This was seriously delightful to see in real life.

Then the skies turned amazing, with the sun streaming to the clouds, and we drove over for a different viewpoint of that glacier lagoon. This makes a pretty photo but was just spectacular to see in real life, because it was sheer serendipity that lined all of this up so perfectly.

And just as I was saying, this day has been pretty amazing. The only thing that would make it better is if we saw some horses that we could actually stop by…

I spotted up in the distance, a whole herd of horses… right by the side of the road… across from a parking lot!!!

Okay, fuzzy wonders. Be my friends.

Cassie pets animals number four. Icelandic horses. YES.

Ahh, yes. Amazing. So many. Love.

And wrapping up our epic day, we checked in to our darling airbnb where a lovely woman and her dog Fönn live (pronounced like fun, one of the many Icelandic words for snow). And we drove into town in Hofn for langoustine dinner at Humarhöfnin Veitingahús.

And that concludes our first three days in Iceland! Here’s a little illustration I made in my tiny journal (this is the size of a credit card in real life) listing all the places we went on this trip. You’ll see we started on the left at KEF airport and started around counter-clockwise, leaving off with part one over at the right hand side of the page. More to come!

 

Around Iceland’s Ring Road in Six Days!

Day 1:

• Arrive KEF airport.
• Pick up your rental car.
• Head to the Blue Lagoon!
• Visit Thingvellir National Park. See the old site of Parliament. See where America and Eurasia meet and maybe even snorkel between them. See your first foss of the trip, Öxarárfoss.
• Stay at Efstidalur II, a farm with cows, horses, dogs, chickens, and more. Have dinner and ice cream here too.

Day 2:

• Visit Geysir and Strokkur in the geothermal field.
• Visit Gullfoss, a giant waterfall. Be sure to get lamb stew in the visitor’s center.
• Visit the Lava Centre to learn about the volcanoes of Iceland if you don’t mind being mildly terrified also.
• Visit Seljalandsfoss, the waterfall you can walk behind. It definitely helps to have waterproof everything.
• And walk down the path from Seljalandsfoss to Gljúfrabúi, where you can walk through the river to get to the waterfall inside the cave. I loved this. I found out that my elbows were a weak point in my jacket waterproofing. But my shoes did great!
• Stop by and say hi to Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano that errupted in 2010 disrupting air traffic and confounding news broadcasters who had to pronounce it.
• See another waterfall! Skógafoss. And climb all the way up the steps to go look from the top too.
• Visit Reynisfjara Beach, a black sand beach with iconic rock formations, a crazy jagged cave, and those basalt columns. But be careful, because lots of people get swept away by the ocean here.
• Stay at Icelandair Hotel Vik, a lovely and simple boutique hotel. Eat at Restaurant Sudur Vik.

Day 3:

• Stop by the scenic green lava walk at the Þjóðvegur Rest Stop for a nice view of the mossy lava up close.
• If it’s open, visit Fjaðrárgljúfur, the canyon in Justin Bieber’s music video. We failed to do so.
• Go to Vatnajökull National Park for a hike to Svartifoss, black falls.
• Visit Svinafellsjökull, the glacier at the end of a very rough road. Take your time and be gentle to your car. But it’s worth the visit.
• Take a look at Jökulsárlón, a glacier lagoon where the ice melts and then goes into the ocean.
• Visit Diamond Beach, where chunks of glacier land on black sand.
• Cross your fingers all along the way for horses that will be conveniently located near the road and a parking spot.
• Stay in Hofn. Eat langoustine (like a giant shrimp or a tiny lobster) at Humarhöfnin Veitingahús.

 

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She creates beautiful, soft, and timeless imagery while capturing the most fleeting of moments. View her work at annawu.com, follow her daily adventures on instagram, and contact her to book your own session today.

That’s part one. Stay tuned for part two!

 

Part 1: Iceland | Part 1 of 2
Part 2: Six Days Around Iceland | Part 2 of 2