Vik, Black Sand Beaches, Basalt Sea Stacks, Waterfalls & Glaciers

We woke to a beautiful sunny morning at the Farmhouse Lodge a few kilometres east Vik. The guesthouse is situated on a farm and the surrounding scenery is very pastoral. As usual, we began our morning stuffing our faces at the continental breakfast and enjoying the view across the farmland. After breakfast, we headed back in to Vik to check out all the sites we missed yesterday because of the bad weather.

View across the farmland from the Farmhouse Lodge

Reynisdrangar Sea Stacks & Víkurfjara Black Sand Beach

Our first stop was Víkurfjara, a huge black sand beach running forming the shoreline in front of Vik. At the west end of the beach is Reynisdrangar, which are basalt sea stacks situated just off the point under the mountain Reynisfjall. With those enormous basalt stacks, roaring Atlantic waves, and stunning panoramas we were hoping for the great photo opportunities!

The village of Vik behind Víkurfjara – Black Sand Beach

Víkurfjara – Black Sand Beach

Víkurfjara

While the rain had stopped and the sun was out, unfortunately the wind was howling! (Surprising, right?) It was once again blowing around 40 kph (25 mph)! We wandered down the beach snapping pics. I wanted to try some longer exposures of Reynisdrangar with a neutral density filter, but the wind was blowing so hard there was no way to keep the camera steady on a tripod!

Reynisdrangar – black basalt sea stacks

You’ve got to be really careful on the beaches in Iceland. Especially on days like this, when the waves are huge. Sneaker waves can break an unexpectedly long way up the beach taking people by surprise…you don’t want to turn your back on them. We marvel at the parents who let their kids get down to the waters edge. People have died on these beaches and there are warnings everywhere!

Vik i Myrdal Church

After exploring the beach and getting thoroughly chilled by the wind there was only one sensible thing to do, hit the Lava Bakery and Coffee at the mall for some coffee and a delicious pastry!!
After warming up at the cafe we drove up the hill behind Vik to the iconic Vik i Myrdal Church. From this vantage point there are some stunning views across Vik and Víkurfjara black sand beach at Reynisdrangar.

Vik i Myrdal Church & Reynisdrangar

Reynisdrangar & Víkurfjara – black sand beach – note the size of the waves and the horses on the beach!

A different view of Reynisdrangar

The slopes around the church are filled with lupin, which were just starting to bloom. We have seen photos from up here when they are in full bloom and it is amazing! Sadly we were just a bit too early in the season. Nonetheless, the views are still spectacular! However, the friggin’ wind was blowing even harder! Looking towards the east end of Víkurfjara we could see a huge dust cloud blowing off the beach!  I guess the gods were thinking, perhaps the wind isn’t enough, how about a cloud of dust in the face?!

A huge dust cloud blowing off Víkurfjara beach

Dyrhólaey

After shooting our fill of photos in Vik we drove back east across the mountain pass towards Dyrholaey. This was an eye opener as well. Yesterday, driving across this pass in the rain we couldn’t see a thing because of the low overcast and rain. Today the mountains are in full glorious view! As we looked in the distance we thought at first, that we were looking a thick layer of clouds over the mountain, but all of a sudden we realized we were looking at the huge glacial icecap called Mýrdalsjökull!

The view of Mýrdalsjökull from the Ring Road leaving Vik- the icecap covering the volcano Katla.

This incredible glacier is sitting on top of the Iceland’s most active volcano, Katla, which carries a reputation for its violent and powerful eruptions. Mýrdalsjökull is Iceland’s fourth largest ice cap and covers about 600 square kilometers (232 sq mi) and its highest point is nearly 1500 meters (4,921 ft) high.

Just over the pass we turned left and headed towards the coast and the Dyrhólaey Peninsula. Dyrhólaey is a 120 meter high promontory with spectacular views of the coast in both directions and Katla and Mýrdalsjökull to the north. Dyrhólaey translates to ‘Door Hill Island’, not that it is an island, though apparently back in history, it once was. There is an historic lighthouse built in 1927 sitting on top and, although we didn’t see much during our visit, a wealth of bird life including the Atlantic Puffin that nest here. Off the end of the point is a rock arch of the same name.

Dyrhólaey

Looking over the Sólheimasandur Glacial Plain from Dyrhólaey

A view of Mýrdalsjökull from Dyrhólaey

Dyrhólaey Sea Arch

Did we mention the wind in Iceland? Well, it was just screaming across Dyrhólaey. We had to weigh Linda down with rocks to keep her from blowing away while we explored! Just kidding, but she did have to be very careful walking around it was gusting so hard!

Sólheimasandur Glacial Plain

Looking to the west is Sólheimasandur, a glacial outwash plain of Mýrdalsjökull. During eruptions of Katla, the volcano under the glacier, floodwaters rush across this plain towards the sea. For this reason, Sólheimasandur has no significant settlements all the way from Vik to the village of Kirkjubæjarklaustur. Apparently, even if the eruptions don’t break the surface of the ice, they can still cause devastating floods. In fact, these can even be more dangerous, as these eruptions are often not detected.

Sólheimasandur Glacial Plain

On this day, the seas crashing onto the Sólheimasandur black sand beach were enormous! They looked huge and we were looking down on them from 120 meters (384 ft)! This was one time I wasn’t wishing I had my kayak and could go surfing…these waves were killers! In the distance there was a huge dust cloud blowing up from the beach.

Huge waves breaking below Dyrhólaey,

A few kilometres down this beach is the wreck of a U.S. Navy DC-3 Dakota that crashed on the beach in 1973. One of the stories is the pilot thought he had run out of fuel but in reality had switched to the wrong fuel tank and had to make a forced landing. No one was killed in the crash. The airplane has been slowing deteriorating since then with only a section of the fuselage remaining. The airplane is a fairly famous photo op for a lot people traveling to Iceland, although we didn’t make the hike there ourselves.

Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach

Looking to the east from Dyrhólaey there are views of Reynisdrangar, the black basalt sea stacks you can see from Vik. There is also another black sand beach called Reynisfjara. Reynisfjara is widely considered to be the most beautiful example of Iceland’s black sand beaches and in fact, it is ranked as one of the ten most beautiful non-tropical beaches in the world.  I would come back to Reynisfjara the next day for some exploration.

Reynisdrangar & Reynisfjara – black sand beach

Skogafoss Waterfall

We left Dyrhólaey and continued west on Highway 1, the Ring Road to Skogafoss waterfall. Skógafoss is one of the biggest waterfalls in the country, with a width of 25 metres (82 feet) and a drop of 60 m (200 ft). It is also very easily accessed as it is only a short, flat walk from the parking lot. You can actually walk right up to the falls, but if you do you will be drenched by the spray. There is so much spray Skogafoss consistently produces a rainbow on sunny days.

The iconic shot of Skogafoss with a rainbow

Easy access also makes Skogafoss a very busy place. It has a huge parking lot and it was pretty much full! Once again keep in mind, this is pre-tourist season! You will see many, many photos of Skogafoss looking majestic, isolated and untouched, but step back a little and watch out you don’t get trampled by the crowds! It took a little effort, but we managed to grab a couple of shots without any people in the way.

What it’s really like up close to Skogafoss

Huge crowds of visitors are a testament to the popularity of Skogafoss

We saw some beautiful photos of Iceland from one very keen photographer who took advantage of the very long days Iceland has this time of year being on the Arctic circle. He worked between about 9 PM and 3 AM, catching the golden hour lighting of both sunset and sunrise at all of these incredible places. He not only captured the best of the lighting but also, no people around!

There are steps leading up to an observation platform above the falls, if you’re so inclined. One look at the long line of people running from top to bottom convinced us that we didn’t need to see the falls from up there! Besides, there are some 527 steps depending on where you start!

The crowded stairway to the lookout at the top of Skogafoss

Solheimajokull Glacier

Leaving Skogafoss we made one more stop at Solheimajokull glacier & glacial lagoon on the way back to our guesthouse. Sólheimajökull is an outlet glacier of the icecap of Mýrdalsjökull.
It is about eight kms (5 mi) long and two kms (1 mi) wide. Sadly, like most glaciers in Iceland, Sólheimajökull is shrinking rapidly, about 40 meters (130 feet) per year. The parking lot was originally right at the face of the glacier but the face is now a 15 minute walk away and getting longer every year!

Solheimajokull

You can take guided glacier walks here and even rent kayaks to paddle the glacier lagoon. We settled for the walk along the path to the glacier and some pics. We were getting pretty tired by then and it was time to head back to the Farmhouse Lodge.

Climbers on their way to Solheimajokull Glacier

Glacier Tours on Solheimajokull

Vik and the Smiðjan Brugghús Brew Pub

After a bit of a rest we had to decide what to do for dinner. Some searching indicated that there was  a brewpub in Vik. As an interesting side note, there was prohibition in Iceland from 1915 which lasted, at least to some extent, until the 1st of March 1989. The ban had originally prohibited all alcohol, but from 1922 they legalized wine and in 1935 legalized all alcoholic beverages with more than 2.25% alcohol content except beer. Go figure! Anyway, we thought we needed to check this place out.

I ordered an IPA which was very good, Linda tried a porter which she normally loves, but hated this one…sad, especially at $21.00 a pint! Anyway, we also ordered a couple of different types of wings and onion rings…it was junk food night. The wings were ok, but not great. I will say, except for the high end restaurants, most our food experience in Iceland wasn’t all that satisfying.

Beer & wings at the Smiðjan Brugghús Brew Pub in Vik

Anyway, we had our fill, left most of Linda’s beer behind…normally a beer lush, I didn’t like it either and headed back to the lodge for some well needed rest. We were both wishing we could shake these colds!!

Once back at the room I debated heading out later in the evening to see if I could catch some good lighting at Dyrhólaey and Reynisfjara black sand beach and perhaps some puffins returning from their day of fishing. It was still blowing like mad and clouding over and I just couldn’t summon the energy, so I convinced myself to get up really early and head out before 6 AM. More on this in our next post.