Iceland Blog — Earth Impressions Photography

We started Day 15 with a short drive to the Black Sand Beach (Stop A) at Vik to get views of the Reynisdranger sea stacks from the east side. Looking inland you could see the little old church at Vik on the ridgeline. We next drove around the point to the Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach (Stop B), a very popular tourist stop, where there are large basalt columns, sea caves and views of the Reynisdranger sea stacks close up, if the sea conditions are good. The waves were high, but it looked relatively safe to hike out to the close views.

The next stop (C) was at Kvernufoss, where there is a large museum of Icelandic culture and a less visited waterfall you can hike behind in a narrow valley. It was then on to Seljalandsfoss (Stop D) where we had met our guide the day before, but the weather was much better today, so we checked it out. You can also walk behind this much larger and more popular waterfall. A short hike along the cliffs also takes you to a slot canyon with a waterfall inside at Gljufrabui.

We then headed to the ferry terminal (Stop D) to cross over to the Vestmannaeyjar Islands for the night. Heimaey (Stop E), the largest island, was very beautiful and charming. There were plenty of sheep and horses and of course Puffins. The island has a lot of recent volcanic history. In 1973, a flow destroyed much of the town there, but the benefit was that the flow created a much more protected harbor. From the top of island, you can see Surtsey, a new volcanic island that broke the sea surface for the first time in 1963.