Road trip in Iceland: Ice field in the east fjords

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Road trip in Iceland: Ice field in the east fjords

High up in the mountains in the east fjords of Iceland. That blueish-gray strip just below the mountain top is a solid bank of clouds!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

Road trip in Iceland: Dettifoss

Rainbow at Dettifoss, Europe’s mightiest waterfall (and trust me, it is pretty mighty!)

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Road trip in Iceland: Criss-cross clouds

Some people think I have my head in the clouds…and they just may be right because I’m always searching for interesting ones to photograph, such as these unusual criss-cross clouds over Gullfoss, a waterfall located in the canyon of Hvítá river in southwest Iceland.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Road trip in Iceland: Sea stack

Hvítserkur is a 15 m-high (between 45-50 feet) sea stack just off shore on the eastern side of Vatnsnes (in northern Iceland). It protrudes out of the sea in the western part of the Huna Bay near the coast a short distance from the farm Suluvellir.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Road trip in Iceland: Puffin

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

Road trip in Iceland: Puffin

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Road trip in Iceland: Puffins

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

Road trip in Iceland: Dandelions and lupines

Proliferation of lupines and dandelions in the east fjords of Iceland..

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Road trip in Iceland: Jökulsárlón

It’s it’s Wednesday, this must be Jökulsárlón! Folks, you keep asking to see ice in Iceland…well, here you go! Jökulsárlón is a large glacial lake in southeast Iceland on the edge of Vatnajökull National Park. I got this record shot with tourists to show scale.

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Road trip in Iceland: Eastern shore

Somewhere in eastern Iceland…right before I captured this shot, we saw a beautiful arctic fox running through a field of golden grass. I got some quick shots with my 80-400, but they’re more record shots than anything.

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Road trip in Iceland: Mossy rocks

For scale, here’s my traveling buddy, John, surveying the moss rocks. This terrain goes on for miles and miles and we truly felt like we were on another planet!

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Dyrholaey Nature Reserve

The Dyrholaey Nature Reserve, home to numerous cliff birds, is located not far from Vik in southern Iceland. The place got its name from the massive arch that the sea has eroded from the headland. (The name literally means “door-hole”). When the sea is calm, big boats can sail through it. There has even been a maniacal daredevil pilot that flew through the arch with a small-craft airplane. (This formation isn’t shown in this shot, by the way. I just wanted to give you the origin of the reserve’s name!)

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Road trip in Iceland: Mossy rocks

This area (which covered miles and miles on either side of the highway in south Iceland) was mind-blowing! I had seen mossy rocks in a photo and we put that down on the list of things to look for. We had NO idea it covered this many miles! I shot tons of photos of this area but don’t know if I can adequately convey just how other-wordly this area was! The natural moss carpet covered basaltic lava flow. In some areas it was more than a foot thick and actually felt like real carpet. More photos of this indescribable place to come!

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Road trip in Iceland: Water, water everywhere!

Water, water, everywhere in Iceland (and some great cloud formations, too)!

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Road trip in Iceland: Meandering stream

Another random beautiful stream on another random mountaintop in luscious Iceland!

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Road trip in Iceland: East fjords

Yesterday, as we were driving over the snow-covered mountain pass in the east fjords, we came across this series of waterfalls trailing down the mountain. There was a decrepit wooden sign marked “Myrafoss.” Iceland is full of lesser-known falls like this one but you have to take the lesser-traveled paths to encounter them. A plus—now we know where to get ice for the ice chest (and it didn’t cost us a single krona)!

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Road trip in Iceland: Mossy selfie

For those of you who have requested a photo of me in Iceland, here you go! (No complaining, ya hear?)

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Road trip in Iceland: Room with a view, cat included

Marcela’s B&B in Reyoarfjorour (can’t add the little symbols on top of every other letter!). This is one-year-old Stella (I thought it was her sister, Luna). She loves being outside (with supervision) so that’s why she’s staring out the window. I’ll find out what the name of the mountain range is and get back to you.

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Road trip in Iceland: Dandelions galore

Some random beautiful scene (they appear every 100 feet, it seems) in Iceland…dandelions grow profusely along the roadway and entire fields are covered with them. Unlimited dandelions = unlimited wishes!

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Road trip in Iceland: Lupines

I have never seen so many Lupines in my life. Iceland has miles and miles of them, growing up the mountains, along the roads, by the sea, etc. Spectacular!

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Road trip in Iceland: Sólheimajökull Glacier

Here’s a view of the Sólheimajökull Glacier with that beautiful lime green moss along the walking trail. The cloud cover stayed over the mountains (and we got rained on at the end of the trail) all morning but the other half of the sky was bright blue!

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Road trip in Iceland: Greener than Greenland

Iceland is greener than Greenland (or so I’ve read). This color abounds in my travels—such a happy shade of green! Yesterday morning I captured this shot on the walking trail to the Solheimajokull Glacier (actually called a glacier snout), in the southwestern outlet of the Myrdalsjokull icecap. River Jokulsa discharges it, and is sometimes called “The Stinking River” because of its emission of sulphuric acid from sub-glacial high temperature areas. (It didn’t stink, by the way.)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

Road trip in Iceland: Brúarfoss

Another shot of Brúarfoss…I half expected Tattoo to come out and say, “welcome to Fantasy Island.” This place is SO indescribable. And on that note, it is 12:30 a.m. here in Iceland and this gal is t-i-r-e-d. Good night from Iceland (where, remarkably, you cannot find a bag of ice for your ice chest anywhere). Yes, there is no ice in Iceland (at least not cubes in bags).

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Road trip in Iceland: Brúarfoss

And this is the view down river of Brúarfoss…a little less drama but no less lovely! Can you imagine what it would be like living in one of those vacation houses you see at the top?

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Road trip in Iceland: A hidden gem called Brúarfoss

This is what reading other blogs, persevering even when there aren’t many signs (we tried to get to it yesterday, making it within a few hundred feet of the trail but gave up because we thought for sure the GPS was leading us astray–it wasn’t), and trekking in mud and water for a short 15 minutes through thickets will get you—Brúarfoss, located in southwestern Iceland. It took my breath away with that beautiful Tiffany blue hue. I can see why not many people get to see it and it’s called a hidden gem.

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Road trip in Iceland: Icelandic horse with rocker ‘do

Writing this at the end of day four of my road trip in Iceland. I’ll be sharing images as I prepare them on the road.

Wind blows my hair, I look like hell. Wind blows through an Icelandic horse’s mane and he looks cutting-edge! Passed by this farm at about 4:00 this afternoon not far from Selfoss and saw about two dozen Icelandic horses grazing. Seven were up near the fence and had just been given lots of attention by another photographer who had been there earlier. We turned back so I could get these shots and all seven got their fair share of petting in return. FYI: there is no shortage of horses or sheep in Iceland! 

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.