Andre and Wendy: Canyon and Glaciers

We started the day today visiting Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon. Because we camped so close by there were only 2 cars in the parking lot when we arrived at 8AM. This was one of our many favourite spots, absolutely beautiful. This is one of the spots that Justin Bieber shot in Iceland for his I’ll Show You music video. There is a nice walking path along the rim of the canyon with a river below. A spectacular viewing point platform that Wendy's Dad would have never walked out on! We had a few laughs thinking of Dad. When we got back from the walk there were only about 20 cars in the carpark, I’m sure there will be many more later in the day.

Just the drives from one spot to the next is amazing scenery, many spots look like a movie more than real life. On the drive to what we thought would be our next stop a dog ran in front of us, so we decided to follow it and stopped at Fossasiou falls. The dog was in the river at this point and we couldn’t figure out what it was doing. It was getting a rock out of the river and dropping it at my feet and I would throw it into the river and back the dog would go to find another rock. It was a border collie, if you’ve ever spent any time with a border collie you know they would play fetch all day, we finally had to say goodbye to this very friendly dog that lives in a spectacular spot that tourist will stop and play fetch with you, lucky dog.

Next off was Dverghamrsr Cliffs. This spot is not visited by many it seems, but has great examples of basalt columns. We liked this spot, it is a little pathway that you weaves you around some beautiful basalt columns that are thought to be formed at the end of the ice age. Very interesting formation, we were glad we stopped for a quick visit, a time to stretch your legs, plus the bonus of free parking.

We had next planned on visiting Fossalar roadside waterfall quick stop, well we didn’t stop, just a drive by view. Our stopping for waterfalls is starting to get very picky! It is still an absolutely beautiful waterfall, but for some reason didn’t warrant a stop.

We now move on to Skaftafell where we are starting to see glaciers. There is a nice information center here and they pointed us on a circular route to visit the glacier and then loop back around more inland. Both sides of the walk were very pretty. The part of the glacier where we were is quite brown which surprised me a little. You can walk quite close to the glacier, but you are not able to walk onto the glacier without a guide, nothing I would have wanted to do anyway. When we walked back more inland there were a lot of pretty wild flowers. A pay for parking place again, but we get a bit of a discount at a stop later for parking since we have already paid for parking here.

We move on to Fjallsarlon Lagoon, a beautiful lagoon with a glacier in the background. Boat tours were going by in the lagoon, so pretty. You were not as close to the glacier as we were in Skaftafell, but I found this much prettier.

Now we moved on to Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon and Diamond beach. On one side of the road is the Glacier Lagoona and the other side Diamond Beach. It is a very windy day which worked out great for us as icebergs were coming off the glacier and flowing onto Diamond Beach. We could see the little icebergs stuck on the black sand beach as far as the eye could see. Very very pretty and unique. On the glacier side in the lagoon we could see boat rides being offered as well. This would have been a good spot for the boat ride, you got quite close to the glacier, and lots of lots of icebergs in the lagoon.

Ready to call it a day as we have a bit of a drive to reach Vestrahorn Camping, a spot we really wanted to stay in order to have the most time to spend at Vestrahorn Beach and hopefully the reflections on the water, which is very famous. Well the mountain is hidden behind clouds tonight, hoping for a sunny day tomorrow. Our camping price included visiting the Viking village and Viking ship which was OK, but still disappointed that the mountain wasn’t visible.

Camping here was one of our least favourite for the amenities. 2 little burners to share in a very busy campsite, and 2 sinks for washing up dishes. Parking is in a parking lot with campers very close together. Bathrooms and showers were fine, this campground included free showers, and it was over time to take up on this offer. So hoping tomorrow we will see the mountain. One bonus is they are adding a big addition to the café that is not yet finished and they had 3 picnic tables for us to use inside. Our campervan isn’t the best when the weather isn’t great as you either have to sit in the car seats or on the bed, you can’t have both the way it was set up. It was too cold to set up our table and chairs outside and cook so we were very happy to spend time in the under construction section of the restaurant. A bit more expensive as well to camp here, approx. $60.00 Cdn.

Day summary:

6:45AM leaving Campground

10 Sightseeing spots

6:30PM at Campground

220 KMS of driving

23.5 KMS of walking

Got at Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon around 7am which was only a 10 minute back tracking drive from where we stayed last night. Us and 5 other cars/campervan in the parking lot. I think some may have spent the night here which you are not suppose to do. A big parking lot, so I expect it will be a lot busier later