TAYLOR ON EARTH

The following morning we woke up around 6:30, a little disgruntled and for me at least not very well rested. We shuffled around in the back of the SUV, layering up with warmer clothes then quickly brushing our teeth outside of the vehicle. After pulling ourselves together we rushed out of the parking lot, overly cautious so that no park rangers saw us and ticketed us for our illegal camping expedition.

We drove the short distance back towards Jökulsárlón and parked on the beach side, also famously known as Diamond Beach. The previous night I found the glacial lagoon to be surreal, but this beach with icebergs washing up onto the black shore from the lagoon was mind-boggling, I had never seen anything like it. The chunks of ice varied in color, from stark white, to crystal clear, to a pale blue, it was beautiful. It was easy to understand why it was called Diamond Beach, the ice looked perfect in the same way that diamonds do.

After spending a half hour in the rain walking along this otherworldly beach, it was time to make our long backtracking journey back west then north to Snæfellsnes Peninsula. Along the way we made a few stops, the first of which was Svartifoss. Svartifoss is located within Vatnajökull National Park like Jökulsárlón but more inland. Upon first researching Svartifoss, I thought it would be much like other waterfalls across Iceland that you simply park and walk up to. This was not the case. We parked inside the national park near the camping areas where the signs pointed us to go, then noticed a trail marker that pointed towards Svartifoss and other areas of the park. Turns out it’s a 2km hike uphill to reach the waterfall.

A note to be made is how green it was here. Only an hour and a half’s drive away were icebergs on the beach and here it looked like summertime in the mountain forest, it was unbelievable. As we continued up the incline, we gradually began to shed layers of jackets and hats now that we had nearly broken a sweat, but it felt great with the cool air. Finally reaching the top of the trail, we could see Svartifoss from a distance. Minding the time, we were not able to hike to the popular photo area along the bridge (or if you’re a rule breaker, which I likely would have been had time allotted, you could get closer.) If you look at the photo below, on the right you can somewhat see the trail that leads towards the bridge across from the waterfall.

All the way up the hills and mountains you can find basalt columns here as well, just like at Reynisfjara. The color variation on the stones and columns expressed rustic reds and oranges, browns, blacks, and grays. Despite not hiking it myself, I highly recommend hiking the trail to Svartifoss, at the very least to where this photo was taken. It is a sight that you won’t want to miss.

Once we made the long descent back to the parking lot where our vehicle was, we made a very brief pit stop back in Vík at the gas station and used some of our krónur that we had in cash to buy lunch, more road snacks, and some microwavable noodles for dinner later on. Finally, it was time to resume our westward path to see Skógafoss. If it has not become abundantly clear by now that “foss” at the end of most named places means waterfall in Icelandic, then here is your wakeup call!

Skógafoss was HUGE. By the time we arrived it was very overcast and bleak outside but we continued to walk our way towards it from the parking area. As we stepped closer to the falls the air became misty and dampened our rain jackets. The mist clouded my camera lens so these images below have been saturated and sharpened to capture the majesty of this waterfall. There is a path that you can walk up that leads above the waterfall to a viewing area and onward for many kilometers, 26km to be exact, with all sorts of specs of beauty along the way. The verdant grass and moss surrounding the waterfall with the black stones beneath my feet meeting the water as it splashed down made me feel like I was in a fantasy land written ages ago. Perhaps in old Norse lore this very site was written about without us knowing.

There is one legend we do know though, one about Þrasi’s chest of gold. Legend tells of a settler named Þrasi Þórólfsson who hid his chest of gold behind Skógafoss so that it would be difficult to reach. After a long time, three men from Skógar made an attempt to retrieve the chest, for one of its sides was visible through the falls. With great difficulty, they managed to place a hook around one of the iron rings and tried to pull the chest out of its resting place, but it was too heavy. The ring broke off of the chest and the mission was then forfeit. The ring was placed on the door of the church in Skógar and has since been moved to the Skógar Folk Museum where it can be found on display. (This is not somewhere we visited but I felt compelled to share the information.) There is a poem commemorating Þrasi’s chest of gold, and one excerpt can be found on a sign near the waterfall:

The chest in Þrasi’s secret lair
Under the Skógar waterfall
Rewards the one who ventures there
With endless riches, great and small

Once the water coated our faces and cameras it was time to continue our journey. Between Skógafoss and Reykjavík was a brewery that I had found while researching for this trip that fit along our path of travel. Ölvisholt Brewery was my first experience of craft beer in Iceland, the water its beer brewed with being glacier water of course, as was custom.  It was absolutely delicious! I had a flight and really enjoyed myself while my girlfriend tried their Pink Lemonade IPA, which I also included in my flight because it was amazing. On another note, their beer called Lava was fantastic and looked like Guinness but even darker, and in my opinion, even better tasting.

I do not remember the brewmaster’s name but he was a delight to talk with and hear stories from. He also helped me learn how to pronounce many letters and words in Icelandic which I am forever grateful for. I want to post the hours to this place because they’re a little odd, I wanted to stop here when we arrived on Sunday but they were closed. Monday thru Friday the brewery is open from 12:00-3:30pm (closed on weekends), however the brewmaster said that often times they stay open later depending on how much traffic they get on any particular day. So if you don’t mind getting off the Ring Road for a bit and having some Icelandic craft beer, I highly recommend this place!

After having our fill within reasonable limits, drinking and driving cross-country is bad, we took a scenic detour around Reykjavík due to construction on the roads but saw the ocean and of course more sheep. Heading north now, we paid a toll to pass through the Hvalfjörður Tunnel which lies beneath the fjord and cuts the distance between Reykjavík and the northern and western part of the country by 45km. This was the darkest and longest tunnel I have ever driven through but that kind of made it more fascinating. We stopped for expensive gas and uneventfully made our way to Snæfellsnes Peninsula with ease. We stayed at Öxl Guesthouse that we found on Airbnb and it accommodated our needs perfectly. A warm shower was the greatest feeling after not bathing and sleeping in the SUV the night before. We met a few German travelers that were spending a long holiday in Iceland. We exchanged a few quips about where we were traveling and I saw some of their drone footage that later inspired me to do the same kind of filming, tracking the SUV through a lava field, but that is for another day.