Today, Kelly and I drove from Húsavík to Fáskrúðsfjörður.  We made some stops along the way around Mývatn. The first was stop was a short hike around the Dimmuborgir Lava Formations. Translated as “Dark Castle”, these oddly shaped rock formations have been preserved by planting Birch trees around them. The formation in the top right corner below was called “The Church” because it created a room about the size of a pulpit.

 

After some delicious mushroom soup at the thermal bath we went to the day before, we headed to Námafjall Geothermal Area.

The air was thick with pungent hydrogen sulfide, so this place smelled absolutely gross. But the attraction looked amazing. I had never seen bubbling pools of gook before today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of colors. And lots of steam…. But mostly incredible stink.

We moved on to the Krafla Geothermal Area and hiked around the Leirhnjukur Volcanic Cone.

This was one of my favorite hikes so far. It was a sea of black lava, with a jungle gym of heaps of steaming dirt and rock to view it from.

The only drawback was the occasional disgusting sulfuric aroma.

Rounding out the sites for this day were two sets of massive waterfalls, Dettifoss…

and Selfoss.