A Fed Bear Is A Dead Bear: Akureyri and Myvatn

On our second day of the trip we continued north towards Akureyri, the second largest city in Iceland which is shocking once you see how small it is. We drove a lot this day but managed to make up for it in a big way. The drive out of the Sneafellsnes Peninsula took longer than expected but the sights were beautiful on the mostly gravel road. When we arrived into Akureyri we stopped by the bank to exchange some money, only to discover that banks in Iceland offer free coffee and ice cream to their customers! We were thrilled. We walked around the city some, but then continued on towards Lake Myvatn. On the way to Myvatn we stopped at a large waterfall, Godafoss. Once we got to Myvatn, we headed to a hike on the east side of the lake, which led to a dormant volcano. The hike was a bit longer than we expected, but went through lava fields with awesome formations, then black sandy areas, and ultimately to the volcano, which was steep hike up!

Godafoss

Lava hole

Lava rock formations

hiking to Hverfell volcano

almost there

Steep....

The rim

Worth the hike!

Yule Lads

After surveying the volcano some, we headed back down and then went in search of hot springs; "hotpots". We went to one known hotpot, which was large and within several caves, but we were a bit timid since they had signs saying that rocks had fallen from the ceiling of the caves recently. We found a spot nearby to cook and hopefully set up camp, and while cooking, we noticed several people come and go with towels from a nearby trail. No hotpots were "advertised" nearby, so we thought maybe there was a "locals only" one near. After eating (about 11 PM), we headed back on the trail, but it seemed to dead end shortly after. We all walked around for a while in different directions, and finally noticed a long crack (about 5 or 6 feet wide) in the ground amidst large rocks (see pictures -it's hidden in plain sight) and then noticed it dropped about 20 feet down. We could hear people talking, so we followed their voices and noticed a path down the crack. Low and behold, there was a super long section of heated water at the bottom of this crack! It was incredible! Crystal blue water from knee deep to 10-15 feet deep and you could see the bottom everywhere. The water was only ever 5 or 6 feet wide at most, sometimes skinnier. AND, it was about 11:30 PM and still light down in this canyon! We stayed down there for about an hour or more, in awe of how incredible this was, feeling fortunate to have stumbled on it. We got out at 1:30 AM, and headed to camp, feeling incredible and giddy and exhausted.