Eric’s 40th: Iceland day 5 – back to Reykjavík

by | Jul 7, 2016 | International Travel, Travel

After a filling breakfast at the hotel we checked out and started our leisurely drive back to Reykavjik.

Before we left Vik we wanted to see their famous black sand beach, so we started there for scenic views of the Reynisdrangar rock formation just off-shore.

Reynisdrangar views

Víkurkirkja

To see the basalt columns and cave up close we took a paved road down to Reynisfjara beach where we also spotted puffins floating in the water about 200 yards off-shore and witnessed hundreds of seagulls circling overhead.

Hwy 215

Reynisfjara beach

Reynisfjara beach

puffins!

Kirkjufjara beach

Our next planned stop was a waterfall we skipped on our first pass near Skógafoss, and since we didn’t know exactly where it was we relied on the pin placement of our GPS to tell us where to turn. It turned out to be incorrect but instead we got to walk up to Sólheimajökull glacier and see several tour groups preparing to do their glacier hikes.

Sólheimajökull

Sólheimajökull

The actual turn to Kvernufoss was only a half mile further down (same road as Skógafoss, in fact). After parking and hopping over a sheep fence, we followed a worn grass path into a canyon to a beautiful waterfall. There were many seagulls here and there was only one other couple, so it was significantly less busy than many of the falls we visited.

Kvernufoss

Kvernufoss scene

From here, we took Hwy 1 back into town where we collected the key to our apartment, settled in with a warm cinnamon bun from the bakery next door and planned our evening.

Tagged with: beach | Eric's 40th | Iceland | waterfalls

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