Iceland Day 4: Bumpy roads and icy flows

 After a wonderfully hot shower we made an early start (8AM, which is early for us). The bathrooms and showers here are great. They're all super hot, probably due to geothermal, and the stalls are always totally private. I don't know why the US can't figure out how to properly enclose a shower/toilet but it makes way more sense this way. 

We headed to Mulagljufur Canyon. We were forewarned that the road would be gravel and very bumpy with one small stream crossing. It was basically all dodging potholes for 2km, but there was another car to follow and it wasn't dangerous so we continued. It was extremely worth it.

The sun was out and there were only a few other people in the parking lot so it made for a great hike. It was about 3 miles of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. All the plants were colorful and there were great mountain and glacier views in the distance. Then we crested a hill and the view of the gorge opened up.

The further up we went the more jawdropping the scenery.

I've been on a lot of hikes in pretty places but none of them took my breath away like this. There was a bit of scrambling up gravel hills and across narrow rock bridges but overall it was an easy 3 mile hike that ended in a 360 degree view of the gorge and multiple waterfalls. 

By the time we drove back down the gravel road to leave we were getting a bit nauseous. Luckily, the next stop was just a quick stop at a glacier lagoon. So we'll just stop there a minute, right? After another mile on an even bumpier road we made it to the lagoon. Our lunch for the day was smoked arctic char and pickled herring so we smartly waited until after all the gravel roads to eat all that goodness. Otherwise, I would have arctic charfed my pickled hurling all over the place. 

The lagoon was full of chunks of ice that had fallen off the glacier. Occasionally we'd see a slice of an iceberg crack off and fall into the lake below, crashing below in a cacophony of shattering ice. There was also louder rumbling in the distance a few times, presumably from bigger iceslides up on the glacier. It was crazy cool. 

I waited patiently for my iceshroom friend (below) to tip over, but he never complied.

Next up was Diamond Beach which is a black sand beach with chunks of glaciers that wash up, people call the ice chunks 'diamonds' but the one I took home in my pocket seems worthless now. 

It was really fun, the river was flowing at walking speed so I'd spot a good iceberg and follow it as the river swept it out to sea. Then the waves would start trying to push it to shore while the current kept pushing it out. It was a battle, but the waves won and pushed my glacier chunk friend to shore.

Another bumpy gravel road up the side of a mountain took us to our campsite for the night at Fossardalur. 

Tonight is clear and might be the last chance to see the northern lights. Monday the weather is supposed to get a bit sleety. Tomorrow is a longer day of driving but we'll still have a couple cool things to do.