Iceland Day 2: Rain, Glaciers, More Rain, a Cave, and a Canyon

Although Day 2 of our Iceland trip was the soggiest, rainiest day; but we visited some of the most memorable Icelandic scenery.

Extreme Iceland Tour of Katla Ice Cave and Glacier Hike

We met our tour bus at Vík, but we were delayed by a faulty tour vehicle. Thankfully, there was room in a later tour, so we hung out at the Vík visitor/tourism center in the meantime.

We boarded a large truck and began our tour to the glacier. The tour guide deflated the vehicle’s tires to continue off-road and drove on the most beautiful, alien planet terrain that I have ever seen. Jet black land stretched without interruption to neon green, craggy, evil looking mountains. So much rain was falling that little waterfalls erupted all over the place, diving straight down to the black pebbles and into the reservoirs below.

This image is my best attempt to capture that beauty (plus a few sheep)- while sitting in the backseat of a bumpy truck, through smudged, rainy windows.

Oh well, you get the idea.

The ice cave and glacier were incredible. Of course, the tour photography used professional lighting to illuminate the ice cave for advertisements, so on our very rainy day, the ice cave was much less translucent, but still spectacular. We hiked to the cave, onto the glacier, and enjoyed the completely black and white landscape. It was very, very cool. Also, very wet. Did I mention that it rained all day?

Here’s a view through the ice cave to the glacier beyond.

We hiked to and from the glacier. Small rivers began to form from all of the recent rain. Thankfully, our tour company had assembled makeshift bridges to get across deeper patches of water.

We then headed back to Vík for lunch.

Reynisfjara, Hálsanefshellir Cave, & Dyrholaey (from afar)

Our next destination, Reynisfjara and Hálsanefshellir Cave warned of deadly sneaker waves. Sneaker waves are undetectable from the shore, but wash considerably higher onto the beach with much more power than a typical wave.

I wasn’t interested to drown in Artic waters while on vacation, so I stayed far away and always kept an eye on the ocean. After all the rain, I was soggy enough.

Reynisfjara is a black sand beach with beautiful basalt columns. I had never seen anything like them before! Basalt columns are typically hexagonal and form in regions of volcanic activity. Their shape is derived from the complex cooling process of molten rock.

Hálsanefshellir Cave was spectacular. It was frightening and inspiring to stand underneath such a large assembly of rock, watching the ocean from it’s depths.

I went to the deepest part of the cave to stand directly under a column. You feel both protected but also at risk because so much weight is hanging directly over your head. The acoustics were beautiful. If you visit, I recommend finding a column at your height, squishing yourself in there and just taking a moment to be one with the space.

Dyrholaey is a scenic rock formation out in the ocean, but we were soggy and exhausted that we decided to go back to the car. Did you make it there? Was it cool? I imagine the rock formation looks beautiful in sunshine. To make up for that, here is a random church that we passed on our way back to the main road.

Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon

After a few more hours of driving we ended up at Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon which was a last minute add to our schedule. Holy crap. This place was outstanding.

It’s a craggy, twisty canyon with a waterfall, sheep all over the very steep cliffs, and viewing platforms so you don’t have a heart attack getting to the edge (more to come regarding my experience with that in a later Iceland post).

It was one of my favorite destinations and quite far off the main drag, but worth it. Family members that outlive me- please spread my ashes here :)

Hotel Skaftafell Skaftafelli

After an exhausting day in rain and cold, we stayed at the Hotel Skaftafell. At check-in, I realized that I had erroneously booked our accommodations for the night before! The front desk attendant was super helpful and still got us a room (THANK YOU!).

We ate a very fancy dinner at their hotel restaurant and immensely enjoyed hot showers followed by dry clothes.