Iceland Part 3: Fjaðrárgljúfur and Vík
Day three in Iceland is going to be a long one and filled with GoT locations! We woke up in Vík and headed right out the door. We never saw one of our hotels in daylight and the funny thing is, I paid extra for rooms with a view. Such a waste, but I wasn’t even thinking when I booked the rooms! Our first stop was Fjaðrárgljúfur (I have no clue how to say that out loud). This stop was at the top of my list when planning our trip. The pictures of Fjaðrárgljúfur online were breathtaking, so I knew it had to be a hundred times better in person and it was.
When pulling up to the parking lot, there were no other cars and I was so excited to have the place to ourselves. When Colin opened his door the park ranger appeared and started telling us we couldn’t walk up the canyon 🙁 , it was too frozen to walk up the path. However, she said we could take pictures from the bridge…I was so disappointed!! As we headed back to the car, we saw her letting people walk up because they had chains on there shoes. We decided to take a chance and head to the closest town in search for them. EVERY store in town was closed and I was losing hope we were going to be able to see the canyon. On our way out of town we stop in a gas station and found them, way over priced, but we found them!!! Be sure to grab a pair of these YakTrax, if going to Iceland in the winter. We used ours every day for the rest of the trip.
A little about
Fjaðrárgljúfur
“Fjaðrárgljúfur is a canyon in south east Iceland which is up to 100 m deep and about 2 kilometers long, with the Fjaðrá river flowing through it .The canyon has steep walls and winding water.”
We only made it up half way before we needed to turn around and start heading to our next destination. Going to the gas station and coming back took a lot of our time. Coming down the canyon was even harder than walking up! Even though we had the ice grips, we had a really hard time getting down. The whole path was completely frozen over. I felt like sitting on the ground and sliding the whole way down. We never fell, but there were a hundred close calls.
The landscapes changed drastically between destinations. Below you can see all the lava rock formations in the landscape. Can you spot our car?
We had 2 hours of daylight left and this was our last day in the south of Iceland. We needed to see Skógarfoss and Seljalandsfoss before heading north for the day. On the way, we stopped back in Vik for a quick second to see it during daylight and check out the black sand beaches. Also, had to stop to get photos with the famous Icelandic horses. Fun fact, horses are prohibited from being imported to Iceland and exported horse/animals are not allowed to return. This keeps diseases at a low.
The beaches had to be the most crowded place we went. There were so many people, buses full of people!! It also started to pour down rain, so I ended up changing my sweater. We took a few pictures, but didn’t stay long because of the crowds and it started to get dark.
A little about
Vik Beach
“Vik Beach, or Reynisfjara as it’s known to locals, is the island’s most famous black sand beach and boasts insane basalt columns, lava formations, towering cliffs, and caves.”
We basically ran to see these waterfalls before it got too dark. If I had to pick, I would have skipped Seljalandsfoss (In the forth picture below). I heard it is fantastic in the summer, but when we were there all the walkways were closed and it was the only place we had to pay to see.
Our night ended when we made it to ION hotel. This was our favorite hotel during our time in Iceland. When we checked in we got upgraded to their best room and received a welcome glass of champagne. Colin and I enjoyed a 5 course dinner at their restaurant, then headed down to the pool and spent the rest of the night relaxing.
