Traveling with Michelle: Iceland Day 4: Water, Water everywhere

Today we traveled from the west side of Iceland to the north. Along the way we stopped at many waterfalls and at mud pools.

But first, we had muesli for breakfast before heading out. We had to go back over the mountain road from yesterday. It was pretty with many tiny little waterfalls. At the top, however, we were in the cloud. The visibility was quite low so we had to slow way down. Yesterday, Shelby said that she wanted to touch a cloud, so today I told her to put her hand out the window. Done! She's touched a cloud!

a small waterfall in the mountains

Shelby with an attitude

Joshua waiting in the car with Shelby's Brown Bear.

After the mountains, we reached the lowlands. Along the way, one of the roads we were going to take was closed as unsafe. So we continued on the other road and got to the waterfall we were looking for. Unfortunately, there were also many other people there. A huge parking lot and many tour buses disgorged people to hike the mile or so to the waterfall. It was also a trail head, so that could have been some of the people. We hiked the rocky trail to the Dettifoss (waterfall). It was very wide, the entire width of the canyon. Then we took a different trail to the Selfoss, another waterfall. Selfoss is very pretty with a medium-sized waterfall and many very small waterfalls along the edge of the canyon. 2.5 miles round trip. Not too strenuous.

Dettifoss

family selfie in front of Dettifoss

Selfoss

"Strike a pose!"

Then as we were driving back to the main road (Detifoss trail head is literally the end of the road), we saw a sign for Hafragilfoss (waterfall), so we turned in and hiked a short way to see that waterfall. In size it was between Dettifoss and Selfoss. All three waterfalls are from the Jokulsa a Fjollum (The Glacier River from the Mountains), which is from under the Vatnajokull glacier ice cap. Yup, that's the huge glacier we saw yesterday.

Hafragilfoss

The river canyon

As we were driving, we saw many cars parked at a parking lot just off the road as well as (yuk) a bunch of tour buses too. We could see steam rising and figured that it was either mud pots or heated water pools. Randy said that it was funny to see so many people stop to see the earth burp as he pulled into the parking lot. We got out to look (it was mud pots, or mud pools). After a short while, Randy and the children couldn't handle the sulfur smell any longer, so we moved on.

After finding our hostel in the medium-sized city of Akureyri (second largest city in the country) around 5:00, we decided to walk around. Joshua wanted fish and chips, so we walked to the opposite side of the city to eat mediocre fish and chips (we've had better and worse). They were served in plastic flowerpots, though, which was very cute! After that, we walked further out to look at the "old town" or Gamla Akureyri. Though they started the fish trade there in the 1600s, Danes weren't allowed to build houses here until the 1700s. The oldest houses we saw were from the early 1900s--not too old, even by American standards. So we walked back and to the grocery store, which had already closed. So no food for breakfast (it doesn't open until 11:00 am). After Shelby and Joshua showered, we read before bed time.