Nature Disneyland
September 1-11, 2018
Iceland is set up perfectly for exploration in a camper van. The "Ring Road" that travels around the perimeter of the country offers a seemingly endless number of natural attractions that can be easily accessed from the highway, with dozens and dozens of camping sites situated in ideal locales to park, cook, and sleep. While one could easily stay in more posh lodging anywhere along the route, taking a camper van costs a fraction of the price and allows travelers to stay wherever they want, for as long as they want, and never have to worry about sticking to a specific itinerary.
We spent 10 days traveling the Ring Road through what we quickly dubbed "Nature Disneyland." Here's all the neat stuff we saw.
So You’ve Decided to Live in a Van
We rented our camper van from Happy Campers, a family-owned business with a fleet of over a hundred cars. It didn't take long to notice that there were lots of similar companies renting vans in the country, but we were glad we went with these guys. When we checked in at their office in Keflavik the son of the father-son team running the counter told us that this was the single busiest day in the history of their company. They normally rent out 10-15 vans a day; we were the last people checking in that day and were number 42. The office had a big shelf full of free food and provisions left behind from people who had recently finished their journeys, so we were able to load up on staples like olive oil and condiments before even heading to the grocery store.
Because it was cheaper, and because we are not fancy, we chose one of their "more experienced models," an older Ford van that had been outfitted with a small countertop and shelf, fridge, single propane burner, and couch that folded down into a bed. It was snug for sure, but it turned out to actually be roomier than we had expected, and we never had any problems cooking or sleeping comfortably in the van. Though it was early September, we still regularly needed the solar-powered heater that you could use for a few hours either before going to bed or when you woke up to get some warm air in the frigid metal tube. Most nights we slept in sweats, down jackets, and wool hats: it got cold. We named our van "Bjartur" after the stubborn sheep-farming protagonist of the book Independent People, which is considered one of the greatest pieces of Icelandic literature and described by Mazz as, "Dense, frustrating, and not very pleasurable to read."
It's illegal to camp in vans anywhere outside of designated camping zones in Iceland. The ecology of the island has been ravaged by the increase in tourism over the last few decades, and those who live in the country full-time don't want visitors taking a dump on their land. The Ring Road itself was easy to traverse, but our phones didn't work and it could be confusing and difficult to find your way on side roads. Luckily our van came with Wi-Fi that booted up every time we turned on the ignition, helping ensure we never got lost.
Once we started making a proper itinerary for our trip, we learned that there are really two ways you can experience Iceland's natural beauty, and we had chosen the easy option. Any type of car can take the Ring Road around the perimeter of the country, but if you want to see anything in the mid bits, you need to have a car with 4-wheel drive. These interior gravel roads called "F Roads" ranged from harsh rocks and gravel to full rivers that needed to be forded, some of which are so intense they require a souped-up monster truck called a "Super Jeep." Kirb was initially bummed to learn he was going to be traveling on the training wheels course, but once we realized that our 10 days were going to be packed even without the stuff on the F Roads we didn't feel like we were missing too much. I guess we'll just have to come back for a separate trip. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The camping spots varied pretty wildly in the excellence of their scenery, but each one offered more or less the same amenities. There would almost always be bathrooms with showers, a water supply, and some sort of communal kitchen and eating area. It was often hard to know exactly what you were getting yourself into with a campsite based solely on what you saw from the road. When we pulled off for the evening to camp at the Skogafoss waterfall, it looked like we'd just be parking our van in a nondescript gravel parking lot at the base of the falls. But once we backed our van into a spot that faced a nearby stream, we found that we could set up our table and chairs with an unbeatable view of a river, waterfall, mountains, and sheep, and that it was an excellent place to spend the night and morning.
When we asked our guy at Happy Campers what his favorite campsite in the country was, he told us it was a place called Thakgil tucked away in some mountains, reached via, "Probably the worst road we allow you to drive the van on." After a very slow, very bumpy 45-minute drive into the literal middle of nowhere, we reached a secluded campsite surrounded on all sides by bright green cliffs and waterfalls. The common area here consisted of some tables and a fireplace built inside an actual cave, which the attendant lit up each night with tiny candles. The area was full of excellent-sounding day hikes we didn't have enough time to explore.
Most nights it poured rain for hours on end, and there really wasn't much more we could do than hang out in our van until it was time to go to bed. When we camped at Skaftafell in Vatnajökull National Park, it started pouring before dinner and never let up until morning. We didn't even realize that we were parked at the base of a giant, beautiful mountain until the clouds had cleared the next day. Any towns you come across are small and maybe have one open bar, but always have a grocery store. Seyðisfjörður was described as the most happening and picturesque town on the east coast, but the highlight there was still cooking dinner as the sun set over half a dozen waterfalls surrounding us, not the ability to spend $10 on a beer at the local restaurant afterward (though it was nice to get out the van and sit indoors with a drink.)
The definite highlight of the campsites was a place we stumbled across called Farfuglaheimili Tjaldstæðið. We were able to set up our van right on the edge of the water and then spend the entire evening drinking beers in a geothermal-fed hot tub with other travelers. A nice couple from Texas gave us 5 bottles of a 6-pack of beer because they weren’t into how it tasted; beer was super expensive and we happily accepted. When the sun went down, the hot tub became filled with locals who were in the area for the sheep sorting party the following day, so we continued drinking beer with them well into the night. Here we were able to debate whether or not the strange white bands in the clear night sky were actually Northern Lights or not (the locals said they were), and Kirb got the opportunity to ask them questions about Björk.
"Do Icelandic people actually listen to Björk, or is she just the most famous person here, so everyone knows about her but doesn't really care for her music?"
"I think people our age used to listen to Björk, but now her music is very challenging. I saw her at the public pool a few weeks ago. She was wearing a black bathing suit and cape with a black hat with big black poofs on it and heavy eye makeup. Everyone just leaves her alone because they know she doesn't want to talk."
All the Big Waterfalls We Saw, Ranked
There are more than 10,000 waterfalls in Iceland, and we saw every single one of them. Ok, ok, we’re lying, we only made it to around 8700 and then we got distracted by some horses with really good hair. Most of the best waterfalls are big tourist attractions, and it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to pull off the road into a parking lot and walk right up to a big beautiful wetboy. After a week or so of constant H2-whoa action you realize you aren’t really getting all that much thrill out of regular waterfalls anymore, so you start looking for something that’s bigger and harder hitting. And that’s how we got addicted to drugs. Waterfalls: Not Even Once.
#12: Öxarárfoss
This one may have suffered in the rankings from it being the last waterfall we decided to stop and see on the trip, but also, it was pretty lame. The area was packed with way, way too many tourists due to its location in the "Golden Circle," the most touristy area of Iceland's natural beauty due to its close proximity to Reykjavik. The coolest part of Öxarárfoss was actually the walk from the parking lot, which led through a neat rock canyon. There were so many people on the platform at the base of the waterfall we snapped one photo and left immediately.
#11: Selfoss
This actually seemed like a pretty cool waterfall, but it was impossible to really take in its natural beauty from where we were located. You could approach it from either the east or west depending on which road you drove in on, and from the side we were on we couldn't actually get near the falls without putting our lives in immediate danger. Selfoss is also right next to Dettifoss, which we had just seen moments before, and is an infinitely more impressive sight. It was like meeting Alec Baldwin and going, "Whoa, awesome!" and then having to pretend to be excited when you meet Billy Baldwin a few minutes later.
#10: Svöðufoss
Tucked away on a side road on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in west Iceland, there were hardly any people at Svöðufoss on a rainy weekday, which was a plus. But it also literally never stops raining in this part of the country, so trying to get close to the waterfall presented several slippery challenges. Mazz was thwarted by a roaring river crossing and turned back for the car, but Kirb kept on, nearly slipping and falling in the mud several times on the way in. Once he made it close though, he realized there was no way to get on the side of the river where you had a good view of the actual falls. The real highlight of this waterfall was the horses with good hair we found on the road leading up to it.
#9: Kirkjufellsfoss
Kirkjufellsfoss, and Mt. Kirkjufell behind it, are one of the most iconic scenes in Iceland, and we recognized it instantly from the walls of the airport and from tour guides. However, it's located directly on a main road so there's no effort to get to it, which means there's just a bunch of knuckle-draggers milling around taking far too many pictures with their over-expensive cameras and tripods. It's understandable that they want to get a shot like this, but on the rainy, gray day we showed up, we checked it out and were fine getting right back in the car and continuing on.
#8: Ægissíðufoss
This was the first waterfall we saw on the trip, and though the falls itself weren't much, the experience of getting there was quite enjoyable. This was also a rainy afternoon, and there was virtually no one else around on the trail, which led for 30 minutes along a river and over sheep fences to get to the falls. There was a single bench overlooking Ægissíðufoss, which was a perfect spot to have lunch after a nice walk.
#7: Folaldafoss
You can see these falls from the road when you turn off the ring in southeast Iceland and start heading through the mountains toward Seyðisfjörður. The waterfall looks great even from far away, and it's easy to get right up to the base. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Folaldafoss there was a Japanese man in a bright red raincoat with a tripod who spent over 15 minutes directly at the base taking selfies of himself before slowly and fastidiously putting away all of his wet gear, placing himself and his big bright jacket in the foreground of dozens and dozens of other people's travel photos. Kirb waited patiently for him to leave before snapping this shot, giving the man a stink eye for at least 10 straight minutes in the process.
#6: Svartifoss
It takes a little bit of work for tourists to climb up to Svartifoss in Vatnajökull National Park, but lots of people still do it because this waterfall looks amazing. The dark, hexagonal basalt columns make the backdrop for the falls look like a big church organ. We took a day hike through the park that led along a massive glacier field and then looped around to the falls before joining up with the main trail that goes back to the Skaftafell camping area. It rained hard the entire time, and though we felt smart for using umbrellas that we had brought along in our daypack, there's something about being from the Pacific Northwest and using an umbrella on a hiking trail that just feels faux pas.
#5: Gullfoss
Though this waterfall is also located on the overcrowded Golden Circle, Gulfoss was an exception where large crowds couldn't mar the brilliance of the waterfall. The falls are massive and powerful and there were rainbows and mist everywhere. The crowds made it a spot you didn't necessarily want to hang around for too long, but the sights were well worth the side trip.
#4: Goðafoss
The area surrounding Goðafoss looks basically like a desert, so the crazy bight turquoise waterfalls falling in 180-degrees around you really stand out. You could walk along the tops of the falls or go down to the beach at the bottom, and both views were spectacular. We saw these falls directly after visiting a stink pit, and Kirb hates a stink pit, which may have awarded Goðafoss extra points for not being a smelly, toxic hole in the ground.
#3: Seljalandsfoss
Seljalandsfoss is iconic in Iceland and very packed with tourists (this was the only place we had to pay to park), but it is also the only waterfall we visited that you could walk behind, which made it one of the very best. Everything around the base of the falls is covered in bright green grass and moss, and the roar and mist from the cave behind is majestic. The area also has several other waterfalls, including one that is tucked away in a crevasse that you have to walk along river rocks to reach. Kirb almost fell in the river getting back to it.
#2: Dettifoss
The Alec to Selfoss' Billy, Dettifoss is the most voluminous waterfall in Europe and makes you feel particularly insignificant when you stand near it. This waterfall also blessed us with lots of rainbows, which is always worth bonus points. The sheer magnitude of the falls and the beautiful canyon surrounding it made Dettifoss a strong contender for best waterfall in Iceland, but it lost. 2nd place is still 1st loser.
#1: Skogafoss
We know what you’re thinking: “Hey! That’s not nearly as impressive as those other waterfalls!” And you are correct to think that. Skogafoss itself isn’t a particularly incredible waterfall, but if you climb up to the top of it, you find yourself at the start of the Fimmvörðuháls hike to Thórsmörk, which leads to 26 more waterfalls. Though doing the full hike is 25 km one way and requires camping gear and thorough planning, anyone can enjoy the first section of the trail, and the crowds thin significantly once you get away from the top of the initial falls. This area was one of the most unrelentingly beautiful we found in Iceland, and Kirb would have hiked here all day if he had the time. Because of this, Skogafoss wins the waterfall derby and has been awarded a $100 gift certificate to Red Robin. Waterfalls love bottomless fries.
Horses with Really Good Hair
Oh, you thought we were joking earlier when we said we stopped chasing waterfalls (note: don’t go chasing them) to look at horses with sweet hairdos? This is simply not a thing we would joke about. Just look at these majestic creatures. Strong. Fast. Great hair. They’re the literal opposite of Kirb, and he loves and envies them for it.
Other Things that Aren’t Waterfalls or Horses
Keldur Turf Houses
These are the original Icelandic Hobbit Holes, and the area they're located in is basically the Shire. Turf houses like these have been used in Iceland since the middle ages, and these are the oldest surviving ones in the country. Everything was already closed for the season when we showed up so we just lurked around the grounds like a couple of creeps, peering through the windows.
Seljavallalaug Swimming Pool
Built in 1923, this swimming pool situated firmly in the middle of nowhere is one of the oldest in the country. Hot geothermal water is directed into the pool via pipes, making it the temperature of tepid bathwater. Though it's hardly a “hot” spring, warm is still much, much better than cold water when you hike out to the pool for the dip in the frigid rain. Seljavallalaug is only cleaned once a year, so it's full of slippery green algae, and when we visited, someone had left behind an inflatable flamingo pool toy for people to play with.
Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach
Reynisfjara is known for it's natural basalt columns and other interesting rock formations, as well as its dark black sand made from lava. There's a big sign when you approach the beach that warns you about how aggressive the tide is, and to be careful not to get too close to the water, complete with a photo of an Asian girl getting drenched while taking a selfie. There was a news article attached marked "Most Recent Tourist Death" about a Chinese man trying to take a selfie and getting caught by a big surprise wave and drowning. Literally one minute after we walked onto the beach we saw three Japanese tourists get obliterated by a wave when they turned their back on the water to take a picture. The point I'm trying to make here is that taking tourist photos is very dangerous and exciting for other cultures and us Americans really need to step up our game to get on their level.
Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon
Though it's possible to walk inside of the 100-meter deep, 2-kilometer long Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon, doing so requires you to regularly wade through the water, which we weren't equipped for. We got soaking wet just walking along the top of the ridge in the rain, but it was worth it. In making a Google Map of possible destinations before the trip, Kirb had tagged this place with the note "THIS LOOKS DOPE." The note was apt. The walk along the top of the canyon only takes you along a short section of the 2 km canyon though, and by the time we reached the final platform we wished that we could have spent the whole afternoon exploring the area.
Jökulsárlón Iceberg Lagoon
Located in southeast Iceland, the Jökulsárlón Iceberg Lagoon is a lake filled with huge chunks of ice over a thousand years old that have broken off from the nearby glacier. The lagoon is connected to the ocean a couple hundred yards away, so it's is a mixture of fresh and salt water. On a warm, late-summer day, you can watch big chunks of the icebergs break off and make their way toward the ocean while seals swim around. It was gorgeous here.
Diamond Beach
Diamond Beach is the area where the iceberg chunks from Jökulsárlón enter the ocean and are smashed apart on the black sand shore. The result is a variety of ice "diamonds" strewn across the beachfront that glisten in the sun. We watched an American girl take photo after photo of a handful of black sand before her boyfriend was able to get her attention and point out to her that the beach was covered in ice crystals. When she got up to the shore to get a closer look and take a picture of those she immediately fell over into the water.
Driving Through a Cloud
Icelandic clouds can get very lonely up in the sky, and when this happens they decide to come down to the ground and lie around on the grass and try to make friends with the sheep and horses. If you’re in a car and you happen to drive into one of these clouds, you immediately think you’re in the situation from that movie “The Mist” and that large monsters are going to appear out of nowhere and bash up your rental van and that you’re going to have to find a grocery store to hide out in until it’s time to make some tragically-timed life decisions. Thankfully we made it out of the clouds before things got too drastic.
Mazz Finds a Egg
There’s nothing Mazz loves more than a egg. She LOVE a egg. Every time she sees one, she makes sure to let Kirb know: “It’s a egg.” She navigated us to a small village in east Iceland called Djúpivogur specifically to see the sculptures of Sigurður Guðmundsson, which use different kinds of rock to represent the eggs of different birds native to the area. As advertised, it was, indeed, a egg.
Kirb Hates the Stink Pit
Hverir is "A unique wasteland in which pools of boiling mud, hot springs, and hissing chimneys give life to a desolate Mars-like scenery." Basically, it's a stink pit that is infested with flies and holes that will ruin your life if you fall in them. Mazz is much more interested in this sort of thing than Kirb. Kirb hates the stink pit and refused to hike around or hang out there.
Mývatn: a Beautiful, Terrible Place We Left Immediately
Reaching the Mývatn area from the east feels like finding an oasis in the middle of the desert. After hours of driving through a desolate brown landscape pockmarked with stink pits, you come across a beautiful, giant blue lake surrounded by green pastures. Then you get out of your car and are instantly swarmed by tiny flies, which love to go straight for the wet parts on and inside your face. In Icelandic, the name Mývatn literally translates to "lake of midges" because of the crazy infestation of flies that have apparently existed there since the inception of human language. The shops in the area sell nets you can put over your face, but we weren't having any of that. There were some nature baths we wanted to go to near the lake, and we were planning on spending the night nearby, but after a few hours of constantly swatting flies from our faces we decided to drive away from that terrible place as quickly as possible.
Dimmuborgir, “The Black Fortress”
The one activity we stuck around Mývatn for was Dimmuborgir, an area featuring large stacks of rocks, caves, and caverns caused by lava flowing over a lake thousands of years ago. Known as "The Black Fortress," this area is deeply significant in Icelandic folklore. Old stories tell of trolls who lived here; others believe Dimmuborgir is where Satan landed on Earth when he was cast from heaven, and that this is where he created the catacombs to hell. Aside from the flies, it was a gorgeous area covered in a rainbow of foliage that contrasted the dark rock formations. Kirb yelled at a Russian lady for tromping through the brush to take a picture, clearly ignoring the signs posted everywhere asking people to stay on the trail and respect the ecosystem. As soon as we walked off, several other people yelled at her too.
Geosea Thermal Baths
Instead of going to the thermal baths in the fly-infested realm of Satan, we drove north to the town of Húsavík and went to a brand new spa facility located right on the ocean. We learned when we arrived that the Geosea Thermal Baths had only been open about a week, so everything there was brand spanking new. The place was sleekly designed with a variety of pools situated on top of a cliff side, making it feel like like an infinity pool with the ocean. We showed up late in the afternoon, and seeing that it was one of the first clear nights we had on the trip, we wanted to stay until the stars came out. We lasted several hours drinking beers and reading our Kindles in the water before realizing we just didn't have it in us to sit in a hot tub for 7 hours straight with no food, and left to find a place to stay. As fate would have it, we ended up drinking in a hot tub for 7 hours straight the following evening at Farfuglaheimili Tjaldstæðið.
Whale Watching in Húsavík
The main reason we went to Húsavík was because it's one of the major ports in Iceland for whale watching tours. This was one of the only day outings we actually paid for, because we always end up on a boat on our vacations, because Mazz loves boats. The excursion lasted several hours floating through the bay looking for whales, and our boat spotted them early on. Basically, someone on the boat would see one spout, the boat would come alongside them, they'd spout again, and then they'd dive and stick their tails in the air and go somewhere else. Then we'd follow them and repeat the process. We spent the morning basically just pestering a pair of humpbacks who were minding their own business. Kind of a dick move, humans. Let those whales hang out in peace.
Kirb Learns He’s Only Half a Man
We dedicated an entire day to exploring the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, which in hindsight was probably a mistake. The weather there was so wet and gray it was impossible to see much of anything, and by the time we actually got to some hikes we were tired from driving all day and didn't want to go get soaked for several hours. One stop we made was to explore Djúpalónssandur Beach, which had the remnants of a shipwreck and some brutal coastline that looked like somewhere they'd film scenes for the Iron Islands in Game of Thrones. Another attraction at this beach is a series of rocks with different weights that Icelandic sailors used back in the day to determine how much of a man you were. They range from "full strong" (154 kg), "half strong" (100 kg), "half carrier (54 kg), and "weakling" (25 kg). One had to be able to at least carry the "half carrier" stone onto a ship to be able eligible as an oarsman. That was definitely the heaviest stone Kirb could lift, so he was technically a man by Icelandic sailor standards, but only barely.
When we arrived at a farm that evening to camp, we talked with the woman there about our day, and lamented that we really didn't get to see much of the peninsula because of the weather. She informed us that this is how the majority of the visitors see the area; there were people who came from other countries to work on her farm in the spring and stayed for 3 months without a single day of sunshine.
End-of-Summer Sheep Sorting
The final weekend we were in Iceland was a celebration for sheep farmers across the country. After letting their sheep run free in the hillsides and mountains all summer, family members from across the country came to the farms to help round them up and bring them home. People have to walk on foot up to the highest ridges to get all the sheep because its unsafe for horses there, and some people at the farm where we were staying had walked 50 km in the last three days. Once the sheep were gathered, they were led into a large octagonal (or similarly shaped) holding pen. Each arm of the pen belonged to a different family farm in the area, and each sheep's ear was tagged with it owners name. People (mostly children, as we were watching) then attempted to grab a random sheep by its horns, read the tag, and drag it into the appropriate pen. The adults mostly stood around in the middle of the pen talking as the sheep encircled them and the children either bravely tackled the sheep or recoiled in terror. We assume the adults got to work once the children wore themselves out, as otherwise this process would have taken forever.
Reykjadalur Hot River
Perhaps our favorite excursion of the trip was a hike into the Reykjadalur Hot River. This hour-long walk through the mountains leads to a natural geothermal hot spring that meets with a flowing river, creating a "hot river" that's a popular area for bathing. People have built up different levels in the river with rock walls, allowing the warm water to pool for deeper bathing areas. A pretty hike through the mountains culminating in a giant natural hot tub was about the best combo of natural goodness we can think of. Regular, boring cold rivers have a lot to learn from this place.