Happy Canada's Day from Lake Myvatn - July1, 2011

This morning after breakfast we had a little hike through the forest.  The views were wonderful.

On our drive to Lake Myvatn we of course saw more waterfalls :)  There were ancient Nordic cairns, used to travel across Iceland that we saw along the road.  It was neat to see them stretch across the plains for miles.

Our next stop was at Namaskard Pass where we saw boiling mud and smelled the worst case of rotten eggs that we have ever experienced!  Even though the smell was bad it was very cool to actually see the mud boiling up.  The whole lake district was filled with boiling mud spots, steam being released from the earth, hot water caves, pseudo volcanoes - so cool!

They have made electric generation stations using the steam from the earth to power the generators.  There were a few beautiful bright blue lakes - I know they are from the salt content in the water but they sure were lovely.

We had a picnic lunch at some hot water lava caves.  It was neat to go exploring and "find them".  We surprised a local man swimming in the caves; it was nice to chat for a while. 

Patrick said we had to climb a volcano so off we went to ascend Hverfjall, a tuff volcano (pseudo volcano).  This is not a volcano that would have lava flow out of it but one formed when lava runs over an aquafer, producing steam.  The steam then builds and erupts, blowing the earth away and then as the pieces fall down, it forms a crater. 

 Dimmuborgir is an unusal shaped lava field that folklore says is the dwelling place of the elves and trolls.  Samantha and Patrick are sitting in the chair that the magical Yule Lads come to sit on at Christmas time.  There were a lot of cool lava rocks and formations.  The bottom middle picture is where the eleves turn to stone during the daylight hours unless they catch children alone, in which case they come out and play tricks on them - at least that's what we told the kids :)

 Pseudo-volcano islands...  Wouldn't it be nice to live on your own volcano island?  Patrick and Sam sure think so.

 Our last stop of the day was at the beautiful Godafoss.  These falls reminded me of Niagara Falls but on a much smaller scale. 

Eastfjords and mountain pass - June 30,2011

We started our day with the Almannaskard tunnel.  It was neat in that we could see the rock walls instead of concrete.  The kids thought it was a long time to hold our breath though (1.3 km long).

Today's drive for the first part was along the east coast.  We made a few stops along the way to play on the rocks and watch the waves.  The coast was beautiful.

We found a place that had lots of "zeolites".  We found out that zeolites are formed by the water boiling in the crevices and then the minerals that dissolved form crystals in the cracks.  It turns out that 1/3 of the 50 known zeolites are found in East Iceland.  Below are a few that we found. :)

We stoped at the giant kettles that had formed a wonderful waterfall. 

We had a picnic lunch beside the kettle falls.  The kids are posing for the camera and just being their usual goofball selves. :)

After our lunch we headed for the Oxi pass - a shortcut during the summer time and what a shortcut it was.  We drove over the mountain this time and saw many waterfalls.

Wayne thought he would refresh himself in a glacier fed stream - Brrrr was it cold!  Sam of course didn't believe him and had to try herself.

Along our mountain ride we saw more waterfalls and this cool sheep with the curly horns (had to stop and take a picture for Sam).  Wayne (below on the right) enjoying the peace of the thundering waterfalls while the kids and I went looking for a geocache.

We finally made it over the pass to the other side and had one more stop to make before the hotel.  It was a 5km round trip hike to see the third largest falls in Iceland - Hengifoss (118 m high).  On our hike we saw many rapids and Litlanefoss.  Litlanefoss was similar to Svartifoss with the basalt columns.

What a view from our resting spot.

Litlanesfoss

We finally made it to Hengifoss.  The sound was LOUD.  We all thought it was pretty amazing!

The hike back was way faster and we spent the night at a wonderful hotel.  Today was another busy day and it turned out to be the day of waterfalls.

Skogafoss, Fjadrargljufur Gorge, Svartifoss, Jokulsarlon - June 29,2011

We started our second day with a nice morning hike before breakfast.  Our hotel was close to Skogafoss which (as the story goes) has buried treasure in a cave behind the falls left by the first viking to come to Iceland.  We didn't see any treasure but hiked to the top and along the ridge wanting to always see what was around the next corner.  There are more than 20 waterfalls on this river but we only saw 5 of them on our hike.

Some of the other / secondary waterfalls on the river are shown in the pictures below.  The right picture in the second set below shows Skogafoss with the trail leading up.

After breakfast we set out for today's wonders.  We saw more glaciers off in the distance and a glacier fed river - betcha that is cold!  We also saw cute red roofed churches and farms nestled at the base of the mountains, and more beautiful countryside.

Our next stop for a hike to stretch the legs was at Fjadrargljufur Gorge.  What a pretty place.  We didn't actually hike in the gorge but along the top.  The gorge was quite deep with a slow meandering river at the bottom.  Once we got to the end with the waterfall, the kids thought it would make an excellent waterslide.  It was neat that the falls had this orange colour to the rock behind it.  We found a small stream with the same and it looks like it was some kind of moss or something growing that gave it it's orange colour.  The water in the pool at the bottom of the falls was a bright, crystal clear blue colour.  AMAZING!

On our way out we drove through old lava flow fields.  We had a quick stop at Kirkjugolfid (the Church Floor) which is made of basalt columns. 

We saw stunning countryside with every corner.

Ever the geek, Wayne wanted a shot of the black pumice sand drifting onto the road.  The roads in Iceland go forever and in some places are windy as a snake and in others run straight as an arrow.

Everywhere you looked there were waterfalls coming down the mountains and glaciers snaking down through the valleys.  It was truly an amazing place to see.

Our next hike was to Svartifoss; 5.0 km round trip.  It was well worth it even when it poured rain all the way back to the car.  The pictures below are of the kids taking a rest, our first view of the falls and the falls themselves.  The next set are the cool basalt columns at the falls.

The next set of pictures are of yet another glacier and a turf-roofed church.  It was so neat to see one up close; we had spotted some on our drive but this one we could walk right up to.

The last stop before going to the hotel was at Jokulsarlon (Glacial Lagoon).  What an awesome place!  We spent quite some time here and could have stayed longer.  It was fun to look for shapes in the icebergs, listen to the thunderous cracking as chunks broke off the glacier, and playing in the surges as the chunks fell in the water.  We saw a number of different ducks (harlequin duck and another that I didn't know) and a seal (only its nose and head as he poked out of the water) at the lagoon. 

On our way to the hotel it started to get foggy which made for some cool spooky pictures (or so the kids thought).  What an exhausting but truly amazing day.