Iceland - Day 6. Settle down, Iceland.

Well, Iceland showed us some incredible stuff today. It was almost like she was bragging. "Hey look, I have waterfalls. Hey look, I have volcanoes. Hey look I have pseudocraters in the middle of a lake. Hey look, my beaches are all black sand. Hey look. my arches national park was made from lava. Oh and did I mention you can see this all within 20km of one spot?"

Settle down, Iceland. We get it. You're awesome.

So we left the farm this morning bright and early to hit the road. Like we said, we had a lot to get accomplished today, but we didn't expect the stunning uniqueness of what was ahead. We hit seven major sites today. Six of which we found around the incredible Lake Myvatn. We'll get to that in a bit, and will probably dwell on it for a while too.

However, our drive was short to the first spot. Above is a picture of Godafoss. This is a simple and beautiful waterfall just off the Ring Road. But it is not all good looks. This waterfall also holds special importance to Icelandic lore. In 1000 AD, Iceland converted from paganism to Christianity as the national religion. The country's bishop meditated at the Pingvellir (see day 2) for 24 hours and decided that Iceland would become a Christian nation. On his long walk home, he sadly threw all his pagan idols into the waterfall you see above, as a sign of closure. Hence, the name Godafoss, or waterfall of the gods.

The bulk of our day was spent at Lake Myvatn though. And Myvatn spends it's life on top of the Mid Atlantic Ridge. This explains a lot of what we saw. Our first stop was a brisk but scenic climb up Vindbelgjarfjall. Try saying that three times fast. Actually, try saying it once. This was a steep climb up loose basalt. There was a small path, but the view at the top was to show the entire lake and all the places we were to be heading during the day. Teri bravely made it half way up before the baby demanded her to stop. Wisely, she listened, and forced me to finish so I could show her the photographs. It was hard to take pictures today at Lake Myvatn. The range of beauty really stretches from horizon to horizon and you can't decide what needs to be in the picture. We kind of decided not to do long trains of photos of horizons for this trip as it is wasteful and hard to look at. So our pictures really only show portions of views.

The middle of our day was spent around the southern part of the lake at Skutustadagigar and Hofoi. The first is a collection of psuedocraters you can hike around. A psuedocrater is a crater about 100m across and formed when lava hardens over water. The water then heats up and violently explodes with boiling steam and flying lava rocks. The landscape sort of looks like a British Open golf hole, only if it was played by giants. After a quick lunch of chips, cottage cheese, and half a roast beef sandwich we headed to Hofoi. This had to be fake. Somehow, a small forest of evergreens grew naturally on a peninsula between all these rock formations and otherwise barren landscapes. There was a small meadow, berry bushes, and lots of different birds.

As we got to the east side, the volcanic activity became even more apparent. This side of the lake houses Dimmuborgir and Hverfell. I'll let Lonely Planet explain Hverfell:
"a classic tephra ring. This near symmetrical crater appeared 2500 years ago in a cataclysmic eruption of the existing ludentarhio complex. Rising 463 meters from the ground and stretching 1040m across it is a massive and awe inspiring landmark in Myvatn."
Basically, it is an enormous crater made of loose gravel. Unfortunately there was no lava inside. Teri and the kid made it up this hike, as it was a tad easier. It was good because the views from atop the crater were the best of the day.

Before this, we were at Dimmuborgir. This is very similar to Arches National Park or The Canyonlands in Utah, except these were smaller and made of lava rocks from steam vents 2000 years ago. Little shrubs and lichen grow on the sides and you are walking below them like you were in an Indian Jones Movie. There are steep crevasses throughout so it is advised not to wander off the trail.

We were drop jawed see these sites one right after another. Each being only about 5 miles from the previous, yet they were so different.

We ended the day at the Myvatn Nature Baths, one of the famous hot springs in the country. Here the water was between 90 and 100, and was a perfect way to end the long tiring day of exploring. Don't worry Grandmothers to be and worrywarts. Teri was very careful. She was only in the 102 degree water for 30 minutes. Kidding. She was never in anything warmer than a soothing bath, and left after only about 10 minutes. She was drunk though.

Kidding again. Calm down. That should be it for today. we have a long drive tomorrow morning before we get to Hofn on the southeastern coast - from volcanoes to Glaciers and beaches in about four hours.

Check for pictures tomorrow. Holy crap, was today spectacular.