Waterfalls and Puffins

8 August, 2014

I hope you like waterfalls and puffins, because our second day in Iceland was a very successful photography day with respect to both!

Seljalandsfoss.

Our second day would have a much more relaxed agenda than the first. No scheduled tours; we just had to drive from Hekla to Skaftafell. Google Maps thought this would take 2:15. So, we had plenty of time to see the many attractions along the way.

Seljalandsfoss

Seljalandsfoss.

Eric in front of the falls.

Waterfalls in this area were just pouring out of the porous volcanic rock everywhere. Photo by Eric.

The lower part of the falls.

While I took a picture of the bottom of the falls, Eric took a picture of the top.

We tried looking for an actual physical geocache, which claimed to be a terrain 2.5. As the muddy trail steepened, it looked like it would just be unbelievably treacherous to get back down. So, we abandoned our course of action.

But first, Eric took my picture next to the treacherous trail.

I was fascinated by the colors of the lichen on the rock.

The falls, edge on.

Eric took a picture looking up.

The particularly unique thing that people love about Seljalandsfoss is that you can walk behind the falls. Somehow, this didn't feel quite so unique and special to me, and I bet my Capital District friends will understand why. I've been hiking behind waterfalls literally as long as I've been hiking!

But I did still take some pictures.

Through the falls.

Eric's view through the falls.

Perhaps because being behind the falls didn't seem so special to me, I started getting more abstract.

The water splashing at the bottom.

Meanwhile, Eric was looking up again.

Eric took my picture on a bridge in front of the falls.

Back on the road, Eric was fascinated by a house built into the rock.

In Iceland, the earth may come for your building at any moment.

Weather prevented us from seeing good views of infamous Eyjafjallajökull, but Eric was able to get one picture.

Skógafoss

Our next big waterfall of the day was Skógafoss.

Skóggafoss up a little closer. Between the waterfall and the perpetual rain, it was difficult to keep all the water off the lens.

Eric took a closer-in picture.

Eric at the bottom of the falls.

At Skóggafoss, you can walk up a steep set of stairs to the top of the falls.

An amusing sign on a side trail.

I was annoyed that they only had two women's toilets for busfulls of tourists. I didn't want to spend my vacation in line for the bathroom. But I was still not feeling 100% better, and needed the bathroom. To add insult to injury, they expected you, on an honor system, to drop 100 ISK, .50 euros or an entire US dollar into a bin in exchange for using the bathroom. You want me to pay a dollar to use the bathroom, it better have an order of magnitude more toilets and be extremely luxurious. I didn't see anyone paying.

Dyrhólaey

Dyrhólaey is a pretty little spot on the south coast of Iceland with interesting geologic formations and... puffins! This is also the southernmost point in Iceland.

Rock formation at Dyrhólaey, along with the Atlantic Ocean.

Our first sight of Atlantic Puffins! In just a few weeks, they will all migrate south.

We've got lots of cute puffin pictures.

I loved seeing him open his mouth.

Eric took a face-on view.

Also Eric's picture.

A second puffin came close to the first one!

The first one had something to say about that!

Eric took a picture of the two puffins together as well.

But I juxtaposed their heads in an amusing way.

Reynisfjara

Reynisfjara is a beautiful beach just west of Vík, full of amazing geologic formations. I thought only geology buffs like us would be interested in such a place, but there were tour buses.

Reynisdrangur, a sea stack.

Pumice on the black sand beach.

A lava cave, with columnar basalt on the right, and another sea stack further right.

Columnar basalt, as we had recently seen at the Devil's Postpile in Mammoth Lakes. Yes, a volcano did that.

Eric took my picture in front of the columnar basalt.

The opening to another cave, further along the beach.

Looking up at the cave opening. It looks almost art deco to me.

The lava roof of the cave.

Eric sitting on the columnar basalt.

Eric took a picture looking back at Dyhrólaey.

We decided to have dinner in Vík since we were right there. We tried the traditional Icelandic fish "stew." It was a lot like scalloped potatoes with some fish in them. It was reasonably tasty, but mostly potatoes. It took a long time to get the check, and that got frustrating. I wanted to buy a sweater made from Icelandic lamb's wool, but the prices were just prohibitive. That was disappointing.

Then we drove another hour and a half or so out to the Hotel Skaftafell. The next day, we would be going glacier trekking and climbing in Vatnajökull National Park near there. The hotel was again mostly serviceable, with another tiny bathroom, and they gave us two beds we had to push together. But the wi-fi was fast, and we were comfortable and slept well.