Sep 2–Coast, Waterfalls and a Canyon

We decided to move on from the Myvatn area. first to explore more coastline, then to he largest waterfall in Iceland and finally to an amazing canyon lined with basalt columns.

It was a long day of driving.

Heading north to the coast.

Love the ocean views.

Our only stop along here was Oxarfjörður beach point of view, although we never saw any beach.

Some silhouettes again the mooring sun.

A little waterfall to enjoy.

The photosphere.

And back to the van.

Heading inland.

And then south on a not too bad dirt road to the waterfalls.

The first one was called Hafragilsfoss.

I walked over to a lava pillar for a different viewpoint.

I wondered where the weird blue coloured water in that bay came from.

The photosphere from my perch.

Looking upstream you could see the mist from Dettifoss, the largest in Iceland.

There are viewpoints on the east and west side. Most tours use the west side as the road form the south is paved but the view is not as good as from the eastern side, but the road from the south on this side is terrible.

The photosphere.

Heading back up to the parking lot. The path was steep with huge stone steps.

We rattled our way south back to the ring road and headed farther east to Studlagil Canyon.

The easy way to see the canyon is to drive to a parking lot on the north side and climb down a long set of stairs to a viewing platform but the view is not nearly as good as from the south side.

But from the south side you have to work for it. It is a 3 km one way hike from the parking lot with enough elevation change to make it a workout.

By now it was getting cooler with a bit of rain. Everyone going in was bundled up in rain and hats. Everyone coming had shed all the because they were so hot. Let’s just say that we were very happy to see the van at the end of the hike.

Also the east side of Iceland is usually less travelled but this place was packed. We had a hard time finding parking.

Studlasfoss Waterfall was near the start of the hike.

A narrow waterfall coming down the north side as we went in.

Someone is building more viewing platforms on the north side.

But the hike was worth it.

The photosphere.

You could climb down to water level “relatively” safely here.

The photosphere.

Farther along you could walk out this point  or walk down he valley.

I have no idea why I didn’t do a photosphere here.

You could also climb down farther but the rocks were very wet so I decided to stick to the higher view.

Then the long walk back to the van.

We decided to spend the nigh in the pretty little seaside town of Seydisfjordur.

To get there you must drive up and then down a winding road over a mountain range.

We got some great long distance views while driving up.

Not so much down back down.

On unpacking at the campsite I discovered that the spare tire holder had broken again.There is a U shaped piece that the tire is bolted to. One side broke the last time and the other this time. Thankfully the closest repair place is the large town back just over the mountain so we can hopefully get it fixed quickly tomorrow morning.