We packed quite a bit into Day 6, and although I don’t have it written down anywhere, I think we got a pretty early start. First up was the 45 minute drive to Dettifoss and Selfoss, which are essentially right next to each other. It’s about a 10 minute walk from the parking lot to Selfoss. There’s a path that leads almost all the way to the waterfall, and at the end of it you can kind of walk through the river to get better views. It was one of the more interesting things to me about the entire trip – just how incredibly close to the edge of the waterfalls you can get to!
Selfoss from the middle of the river
Ashley and Stacy in front of Selfoss
From Selfoss, it’s about a half-mile walk to Dettifoss (Falling Falls), which is actually the waterfall with the greatest volume of water in the entirety of Europe. There are a few paths around that waterfall, so you can see it from several different places. Due to the extreme amount of water and mist, Dettifoss is also a really good opportunity to get a “rainbow-over-the-waterfall” picture if you haven’t already gotten one!
Another rainbow-over-the-waterfall photo, at Dettifoss
Dettifoss from the opposite viewing platform
Our next stop was about 30 minutes away at Hverir. It’s another one of Iceland’s geothermal areas, and of all the places we went, this one really truly felt like we were on Mars. It’s a bizarre, steamy wasteland filled with small craters, fumaroles, steam vents, and bubbling pits of mud. And it produces sulfuric gas like I’ve never experienced before. I work with animals, and like to think I’ve grown pretty immune to unpleasant smells, but within a few minutes I had my mouth and nose covered and was trying not to gag. It seemed doable to most of the other people who were there though, however I don’t think many people stuck around for more than about half an hour or so.
Mud pits on Mars (or Hverir)
Not far down the road from Hverir is Krafla crater. It’s a fairly short trek from the parking lot to the first, smaller crater lake you’ll come to, and not too far past that there’s a blackened, mangled looking area of ground that is lava fields left over from years and years ago. On the other side of the area you can find the much larger Krafla Viti crater lake, and hike around the rim of it. We opted not to find the larger crater, because it looked like there was nasty weather coming, and because even though it was much better than Hverir, Krafla is still volcano-fueled and I wasn’t doing much better with the sulfur smell there than I did at Hverir.
If you continue along the road, you’ll eventually come to Mývatn Lake, where you can explore and play in hot springs and nature baths similar to the Blue Lagoon. Along the way, however, there’s a sign pointing the way to a small, unassuming little lava cave called Grjótagjá. You can scramble down a few rocks from the mouth of the cave to look inside, and by itself it’s really not all that impressive. However, if you’re a Game of Thrones fan, that cave is the place where Jon Snow and Ygritte stayed with each other, and where Jon ultimately broke his vows to the Black. (It’s the nerd in me, I can’t help it!)
Jon and Ygritte’s cave
Our final stop for the day was Godafoss (Fall of the Gods), about 30 minutes away from Myvatn. You can approach it from both sides of the river, although we elected to just stay on the one side. Of everything we did in Iceland, I put my camera at the most risk at Godafoss, jumping from rock to rock across the river to get to a large boulder for an uninterrupted view of the waterfall (and a nice selfie opportunity).
Stacy and Ashley at Godafoss
Godafoss, the falls of the gods (also another rainbow photo!)
From Godafoss, it was about an hour and a half to the campground at Húsabakki, yet another of the camping card sites.
