Stuðlagil Canyon & Hverfjal Crater

Today we visited the Rjúkandi Waterfall, hiked to Stuðlagil Canyon, checked out the Viti Crater, visited the Namaskard Geothermal Area, visited Skútustaðir, and hiked the Hverfjal Crater.

We started our day with breakfast at our hotel, and then hit the road to our first stop Rjúkandi Waterfall. This was a cool waterfall accessible from the side of the road, so a quick stop.

Our next destination was the Stuðlagil Canyon, which was a basalt column canyon with a massive river running through it. We hiked down to the canyon and walked along it, enjoying the immense columns and the powerful river.

After the canyon we had a lot of driving, taking us further north into Iceland. We began driving through geothermal areas, with massive plumes of steam rising from the ground. We also saw a number of geothermal energy plants!

Our first stop in the geothermal region was Viti Crater, which was a volcanic crater filled with blue water. After enjoying the crater we headed next to the Namaskard Geothermal Area, which had a ton of bubbling mud pools, and absolutely beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. The mountains were orange and yellow, clearly tinted from all of the sulfur, which was really neat to see. They looked a bit like the copper mine from Wales!

After the geothermal are we grabbed dinner at a local restaurant, opting for soup again(apparently soup is very common here). Chris went with Icelandic lamb soup, and Chelsea with vegan lentil soup.

Our next stop after dinner was Skútustaðir, which was a very cool area on the edge of Mývatn lake that had a ton of craters and historic volcanic activity. It was pretty neat seeing the craters juxtaposed against the water and the horizon.

Following the craters we headed to the ultimate crater, Hverfjal Crater. To reach this we climbed the side of the nearby Hverfjal Volcano, and then walked the entire rim of the crater. This was the best hike of the day, as it gave us spectacular views into the crater, and of the surrounding countryside.Read more