Mývatn lake and Hverir geothermal

The campsite we stayed at in Varmahlíð was fantastic! There was many spots to set up, and they were all separated into quadrants lined with trees. It wasn’t very busy when we went so we had a whole quadrant to ourselves! There is a nice station for doing dishes and there are hot showers here. The hot water comes from the geothermals so it does smell a bit like sulfur but its not terrible. There was also this wicked bouncy bubble that we had to try out before leaving for Mývatn. This site is owned by a family and my husband and I had a nice chat with them before they left. We heard from them about how tourists often get stranded out in the F-roads and helicopters are sent to rescue them out of rivers. Apparently this happens often!

On our way to the lake we drove by a waterfall that seemed like it would be worthwhile to check out. It somehow managed to slip past my research and so it never made the official plans, but I’m glad we worked it in because it was a fantastic sight. The whole area was absolutely beautiful. This is another 2 part waterfall, but the bottom portion is quite a bit further from the top. There’s lots of things to check out including a beach area near the top waterfall and a lush grassy area near the bottom. It was raining here again and for the majority of the day so it was difficult to get some shots, but I made it work! Thankfully my gear is weather sealed.

Mývatn lake has so many areas of interest that we planned on staying around there for most of the day. We checked out  Skútustaðagígar, Höfði, Dimmuborgir, Grjótagjá Cave, and lastly the Hverir mud pits. All of these while so close together, were so unique and offered completely different experiences. The craters at Skútustaðir provide an amazing view from another side of the lake, Höfði is a little forest to hike through and you can see many interesting rock formations in the water nearby. Dimmurborgir is both educational and mind blowing; learning how these impressive lava formations came to be, and the cave, well the cave is beyond cool. There are 2 separate entrances with their own hot water. Apparently this was a men’s and women’s public bath, used quite heavily until the 1970s when the volcano Krafla erupted. It caused the water’s temperature to rise, making it slightly too hot to enjoy. While we weren’t able to swim, we did check it out inside and up on top.

It is quite miraculous, seeing this giant split in the ground go on as far as the eye can see. And wow! Was the steam ever coming up from the crack! Be mindful of your camera. I’ve never experienced such horrible fogging. It actually seeped into my lens, in between the glass layers and it stayed that way for over an hour. I thought it was pooched.

After the cave, we went for a little drive to the mud pits and saw some amazing geothermal activity. By the time we reached this destination it was a slightly after 12am and we stayed for an hour, having plenty of time to see all the bubbling hot mud and beautiful colours. We could tell this place gets beyond busy during the day by all the footprints, but coming here so late we had the place to ourselves again. There was the smell of sulfur, but neither of us were terribly bothered by it.  I made some jokes that there must be demons close by, (referencing “Supernatural”) and then we left for our campsite located at the bottom of route 864.