Day 6 - Dimmuborgir, Havejall Canyon, Studlagil Canyon and Northern Lights!
It rained and snowed all night, the ground was clear but wet.
I was up early and turned on the heater. It only ran for an hour. Seems we ran out of propane fuel. It was enough to warm up the RV and there was just enough gas to cook breakfast. Good thing we filled the spare tank. I switched them out before we left.
We got an early start to the day and headed out to Lake Mývatn. We had toured the north part of the lake yesterday. That is where we saw the Mud pots and Cave pool. Today we toured around the south side. The weather was fickle with a clear start, then snow, then clear.
Dimmuborgir Lava Formations
Dimmuborgir, meaning “Dark Castle” in Icelandic is a large lava field with rock formations that look like castles.
Yule Lads
There is a legend of Yule Lads that live in the caves among the rocks. They are 13 brothers that love to sing, trick people and tell funny stories,. They are the sons of trolls Gryla and Leppaludi (Editor’s note: Nordic Christmas vibes for sure). We did not see any of the lads.
We did hike a few of the trails that wound through the rock formations (Editor’s Note: Dad was lazy and did this in his Uggs. The paths had snow on them and we specifically chose a more difficult path. You can guess what happened. We literally walked past some American moms who “shamed him for his shoe choice” - his words not mine, I would say they correctly chastised him).
Kaffi Borgir
There was a great cafe and gift shop at the entrance and I enjoyed a nice cappuccino and picked up a few more souvenirs (Editor’s Note: here we also stole some small sugar packets for our morning coffees, a crucial heist).
Next we drove a horrific road (read: pothole heaven) to the Hverjall Crater. It is a huge crater of mammoth proportions. We made the executive decision not to hike to the top as we needed to adjust our schedule to quickly drive to clear skies to see the Northern Lights.
We got back onto the Ring Road (Hwy 1) and headed east. The drive to Egilsstadir was spectacular. Large snow capped mountains and deep valleys.
Studlagil Canyon
We made a quick stop at Studlagil Canyon to see the largest number of basalt rock columns in Iceland. It is nestled in a valley with a glacier river running through it. The road there was a bit of a challenge with the RV, but we made it. (Editor’s Note: at this site we were able to enjoy another hot dog. Costco still leads as of now, but the Studlagil dog is in spot #2, ahead of GodaFoss now at #3).
Wendell found a campsite in Djupivogur, a coastal town on the east side of Iceland that is known for viewing the Northern Lights. To save time, we took a short cut so we would not have to follow the coastline of the Ring Road. Not sure it saved any time as it was mostly gravel and had MANY steep grades. Once again, the scenery was spectacular, or so I was told, as I was too focused on driving the RV (Editor’s Note: this absolutely saved us time, very thankful for our talented driver. A long day of driving but very beautiful).
Djupivogur Camping Ground
An open lot campground, but it had electrical hookups so we had heat! It also had showers, but you had to pay and there was not much hot water.
Djupivogur
This fishing village was small but picturesque. We found Hafio Bistro to have a little dinner as we were tired and did not want to make dinner.
This area is known for viewing the Northern Lights. Wendell found a great viewing spot on an hillside near our camp away from lights. It started slow with a large band covering the sky, then a smaller band formed with dancing lights. Eventually, the entire sky was covered with moving lights. It was a site to behold (Editor’s Note: it was).
