Got to the car rental place and got into my ride for the next 10 days. It was a Ford Edge which I thought would be good enough, but I didn’t know that it would have 105,000 miles on it. It was definitely well worn. I drove off and started having some transmission issues. Whenever I was driving at highway speeds, the transmission would feel like it would slip and the car would jerk. This happened a couple of times a minute and quickly got annoying. I turned around, since I was only 30 minutes out at that point, and took the car back. The guy at the agency took it for a test drive and it was fine. I took another ride with him and it was fine. Weird. So, I got back in the car and continued on the road trip.
When driving around Iceland, there are a few things. Ring Road, aka 1, is the main loop around Iceland. It’ll take you to most of the towns and attractions. There are a few things off of 1 though with the entirety of the Westfjords being the biggest one. There is a difference between driving the Ring Road and driving the Ring Road and the Westfjords. I did the latter. The first day was getting into the Snaefesness area. I was excited about this drive because I've heard so many great things about the Icelandic scenery.
The first real stop were the Gerduberg Basalt Columns. These were really cool to see since you normally don't see geometric patterns in nature like this. Getting there was a bit weird because you drove by someone's farm to get to the base of the cliffs. You can kind of climb up them which I did. I only saw 1 other car while I was there and that was great. I continued along the roads there and did a bunch of random stops to take pictures. This happens a lot in Iceland and everyone does it. Some people are more considerate than others about it, but when driving in Iceland, expect cars randomly stopped on the side of the road. And sheep. I ended up staying in Arnarstapi for the first night on the road and slept in a parking lot by the bay. I wanted to see Arnarstapi more, but the weather was horrible with fog, rain, and cold.
Gerduberg Cliffs
Gerduberg Cliffs
Top of Gerduberg Cliffs
Random hill on the side of the road
The fog can produce some really cool pictures.
The next day, I had to get gas. The gas pump in Arnarstapi was broken. My car's low gas light was on. This was about to be an "interesting" first full day of the road trip. I ended up driving about 30 kilometers to another gas station. Luckily, I made it and the gas station was working. After I got gas, I ended up driving around the Snaefellsnes peninsula in a counterclockwise manner. The first stop was Saxholl Crater. It had a relatively easy climb to the top of the crater with a trail around the top as well. Djupalonssandur was the next stop and it is a stone beach a wrecked fishing boat on the beach. I also explored the lava tubes at the Vatnshellir Cave. They have a free section above ground that isn't well advertised but it is there. Oh, parking there sucks because it seems like they have 6 parking spots which means that 3 tour buses filled them up already.
Saxholl Crater
Nice reflection of the sky by Saxholl Crater
Top of Saxholl Crater
Spectacular view #459
Djúpalónssandur from near the top.
Trail down to Djúpalónssandur. Kind of looks like something from Game of Thrones.
Djúpalónssandur wreckage.
Djúpalónssandur
Stairs inside the Vatnshellir Lava Cave
Next up for the day was a lot of driving. See, things in Iceland are pretty far apart. For a country that is the size of Kentucky with a population of about 300,00 people, there's a lot of nothing between things to see and do. A lot of nothing, but at least the nothing is very pretty. The scenery between the Vatnshellir Cave and Kolgrafafjordur Bridge and to Grábrók Crater was great. I decided to try to take roads that I hadn't been on before to see more of the countryside even if it was longer. After Grabrok Crater, I found the 2nd non-working gas pump in 2 days. At this point, I decided to fill up whenever the car get below half a tank because I'm having shit luck for finding working gas stations. After getting gas, I drove up to the Westfjords, had puffin for dinner, and then found a place to sleep for the night.
Somewhere on the Snaefellsnes peninsula and I really liked the layers from the fog.
Snaefellsnes peninsula
Snaefellsnes peninsula
Near the Kolgrafafjordur Bridge. It is known for orca sightings, but I didn't get to see any.
Very alien looking lava fields.
Ruins of a settlement by Grábrók Crater.
Inside of Grábrók Crater.
The Westfjords began with a trip to Rauðasandur (Red Sand Beach). The road out there was F-U-N! By that, I mean that if I was in a rally car, I would've had a blast, but I did the best that I could in the POS SUV that I had going around the hairpin turns with sheer cliffs on the sides. Oh, and it was bumpy as hell. There was almost no one at the beach and I took my time to wander around the sand. I even saw footprints of arctic foxes in the sand. I drove through a couple of villages that were nice to look at, but didn't have much to offer than that to me. The Westfjords are very scenic, but it is a lot of driving. The next town is only 6 miles away as the crow flies, but it'll take you nearly an hour to get there because you have to drive up and down all of the fjords.
The one awesome highlight was the road from Bildudalur to Dynjandi. Man, that road really needs to be a rally cross road. Lots of inclines, dips, curves, twists, and turns. I might have been going above the posted speed limit during that stretch, but I saw almost no one on the roads. I finally got to Dynjandi and the views were fantastic. I took several pics of the falls below it, but I think I got better pictures from the road above the falls. What do you think?
Check out the tiny white sheet out there.
Stream near a picnic area in the Westfjords.
Statue by the above picnic area. Very scenic with the fog and clouds.
Rauðasandur
Rauðasandur, my footprints
Rauðasandur, dead jellyfish.
Rauðasandur, very flat and open.
Rauðasandur, looking east.
Top deck of Gardar BA 64.
Inside of Gardar BA 64.
Iceland is so short staffed because of the tourism boom that they are training people as early as possible.
Bíldudalur
Spectacular view #894
Spectacular view #196
Between Bíldudalur and Dynjandi and it was absolutely incredible. This geography was totally different than anything else that I saw in Iceland.
Top of Dynjandi falls.
Dynjandi falls.
Red clay layers in the sediment. I thought this was very striking.
Me in front of Dynjandi with my usual goofy smile.
After Dynjandi, I continued on the awesome road to Isafjordur. Seriously, I really wish I had a WRX on that road. The one weird thing about this drive is that they had 1 lane tunnel. It is a bit of a headscratcher, but there are pull off points inside of the tunnel. Isafjordur was probably one of my favorite things about the Westfjords. It is only a town of about 2,600 people, but it seems pretty big for being that small. They had a downtown area with a few restaurants, bars, a grocery store, and other things. I ended up staying in the campgrounds there in order to take a cold shower and a poor attempt at laundry while in the shower. The most magnificent part of Isafjordur was a giant divot in one of the cliffs. You kind of get used to seeing similar cliffs over and over again. However, there is this huge hollowed out part of one of the cliffs and it is named Naustahvilft. I was talking to people and they said there was a hiking trail up into the depression. I decided that the very next day, I had to get up and do that hike.
It was a short hike, but it was an intense hike. The trail is only about 500m long. Once you get to the top, there is a logbook for you to sign. With the logbook, there is a sign that says that the elevation is 225m. Basically, the entire trail is almost at a 40 degree angle. Like I said, it was intense. Once at the top, I found 4 wary sheep and a lot of fog. I wish the fog had cleared so that I could see the sides of the depression, but maybe on my next trip back to Iceland.
The last part of the trip to the Westfjords included a short stop at the Arctic Fox Center.
Spectacular view #941
I found all of the Mexican food in Iceland.
Random graffiti in Isafjordur.
Picture of Naustahvilft from Isafjordur.
Start of the hike.
Top of the hike with the mama sheep and 3 younglings.
Top of Naustahvilft overlooking Isafjordur.
Lots of boulders at the top of Naustahvilft.
Arctic foxes that serve as ambassadors to the public.
Hopefully I showed you enough pictures. There are more to come in northern Iceland.
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