Back to Reykjavik, Glacier Lagoon

The last day of my road trip, I made my way back to Reykjavik. Before coming to Iceland, I saw many photos of broken down old barns and farm equipment against the Icelandic landscape. I wanted to get some of my own, so I looked out for cool old barns. I finally came to this abandoned farm on the last day of my ring road trip. There was no fence, so I got to explore all around the location.






The landscape became even more exciting as I passed Vatnajökull. My favorite part of the drive was my stop at the Glacier Lagoon. I have never seen anything like this in my entire life. How cool would it have been to have a model on this location?!






As I passed through Vik, an enormous storm started. The rain fell so hard that I could only see a couple of yards ahead of me. The rain cleared up as I passed Seljalandsfoss, revealing an incredible sky. The wind was so crazy that climbing around the waterfall almost completely soaked me, but it was definitely worth it. My weatherproof coat helped me shield my camera in between shots. The red color came from a bright red light that lights the fall at night.

Ring Road Trip: Goðafoss to Höfn

The next stop on my ring road trip was Hofn. I looked for hostels, but didn't find one that had availability for a price within my budget. I decided to rough it for a night and sleep in my car. I rented a -5˚C sleeping bag from my hostel in Reykjavik, so I felt prepared. Luckily, the weather was perfect.







There are two well known waterfalls up north, Dettifoss and Goðafoss. Since I had a six hour drive ahead of me, I didn’t have enough daylight to visit both. I found out that the road to Dettifoss was closed because of the weather, so that made my choice easy. Goðafoss is right along the main road, so it was a convenient visit.




The snow was easily two feet deep in areas around the waterfall. I felt like a kid stomping around in it, especially since mine were the only footprints! To protect my camera from light snow, I covered my camera with plastic baggies attached to my lens hood. It's a good thing too, because within about 5 minutes the weather changed dramatically.




My family is convinced that I actually went to Mars, not Iceland. Every time I turned a corner I found a new, crazy looking landscape to capture.




As I headed south, the snow died down and the landscape transformed again. This is Jökulsá, the second longest river in Iceland.




I followed Highway 1 until I got to the area where the 1 road turns east and follows the coast. Instead of taking the long way, a girl I met at the hostel in Akureyri recommended that I take the shortcut, 939. The road was kind of terrifying to drive, but the view was mind blowing!




At nightfall I passed Höfn. Instead of going into the little town, I kept driving, looking for borealis.




Eventually I got sleepy, so I pulled over at a safe spot and took a little nap. Sure enough, when I woke up there were borealis in the sky.




After photographing the lights at several locations I found a good spot to spend the night. I actually managed to get a pretty good nights sleep. I woke up feeling chilly around 4am, so I turned on the car and drove a bit to get warmed up. I slept happily until 9am, and then set off down the road again!

Ring Road Trip: Akureyri

After building up confidence during my first couple of days in Iceland, I decided to tackle the entire ring road around Iceland in a three day road trip. On my first day, I drove from Reykjavik to Akureyri. The route is highlighted in red on this map. I was in for some seriously snowy surprises.






I didn't get out of the car very often. It was getting even colder, and the wind was insane. I noticed an enormous gorge coming up, so I felt it was worth pulling over for. I am glad I did, because it was impressively huge. My fisheye lens was the only one that could fit the whole thing into the frame, but consequently it made the gorge look shallower than it really was. Still, I thought the mixture of rock and ice combined to make some cool textures. To get an idea of the size, imaging a car crossing across the bridge in the right side of the image.




The more north I went, the more snow fell. Soon, I felt like I had been transported to the north pole! Driving was slow, since I had never driven in snow before. I even felt like an ice road trucker on some of the roads.






I arrived in Akureyri just after sunset. I found my hostel easily, and got settled in. Even though the weather was bad, I decided to go out and try to do some night photography. I am really glad I did, because trekking around in the snow was a blast. I didn't have any snow boots, so I put plastic bags in between my second and third pairs of socks. This kept any water that got into my tennis shoes from getting my feet wet. It worked like a charm!




The more time I spent in the snow, the more I felt I like had stepped into Christmas. I was sure Santa Claus must be around the next corner, but burst out laughing when he WAS! I saw a large sign with Santa on it that said "12km." Santa is only 12 kilometers away?! I MUST see this. Sure enough, about ten minutes out of Akureyri was the Christmas Garden. I stepped inside the festive house to find a warm fireplace and Christmas EVERYWHERE. Holiday tunes played in the background as I shopped around. I left there completely overwhelmed with happiness, and with a yummy candy cane.






On my way back to the hostel I found a stunning night-scape.




Fun Fact: Geothermal energy and hydropower provide ALL of Iceland's electricity. Is that green or what?!