Author Archives: Christi

Vatnshellir Cave (Lava Tube/Lava Tunnel) in Snaefellsjokull National Park, Snæfellsás Peninsula, Iceland – Part 2

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continued… The path led to another staircase, which ended in a long, relatively thin cavern. Here was a shot looking back at the staircase from deeper inside the cavern. You can see the staircase that led up to the entrance in the background.

In this cavern, she got more into the geology of how the cave formed. This portion of the talk was similar to what we’d learned at Raufarhólshellir. We were again thankful that we’d seen the Lava Show (twice!) — the idea that running lava could form a giant hollow cave was actually counterintuitive. We probably would’ve had trouble wrapping our heads around the phenomena had we not actually seen them form in the demonstrations.

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Hellnar and Londrangar Cliffs in the Snaefellsjokull National Park, Snæfellsás Peninsula, Iceland

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continued… we headed to Snaefellsjokull National Park. It was a relatively short drive from the gorge. We didn’t have to turn off the road to enter into the park — we merely drove past a sign that said Welcome to the Park. Nor were there any fees to enter.

The Snaefellsjokull National Park was established in 2001. The Snaefellsjokull Glacier was the park’s centerpiece, and the 66 square miles (170 square kilometers) of the park surrounded the glacier and some of the nearby seashore. The glacier was situated on top of a 700,000-year-old stratovolcano, and together they were 4,744 feet (1,446 meters) tall. The mountain has been built up by repeated eruptions over roughly the last 800,000 years. It last erupted about 1,800 years ago and was still classed as an active volcano. Currently, the glacier covered around 10 km2.

We did turn off the main road to drive to a viewpoint in a small village along the waterfront called Hellnar. On the way, we stopped because we saw a couple of signs along the side of the road. We were glad we’d stopped, as this was also a lovely viewpoint. Looking towards the ocean and Hellnar.

And looking up at the glacier.

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Raudfeldsgja Gorge in the Snæfellsás Peninsula, Iceland

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continued… We piled back in the car. It was a relatively short drive to our next stop, Raudfeldsgja Gorge. This was the view from the parking lot (and parking was free). It was hard to see in this photo, but if you look closely, you can see there was a waterfall flowing into the crack in the middle of the rock.

Per the sign, it was named after a character in a traditional folklore story. According to the legend, Raudfeldsgja pushed his cousin onto an iceberg and she floated to Greenland. Her father and his uncle, Bárður Snæfellsás (who was believed to be half-man, half-troll), murdered him here in retaliation. We were noticing a pattern that Iceland’s culture was kind of dark.

Anyway, the gorge appeared to be another hawng, like Gljufrabui at the Secret Waterfall. Neither Keith nor Eric wanted to hike up to see the waterfall, but Christi was excited to go. This was the path up. You can see the stream made by the waterfall runoff to the left.

Entrance into the hawng.

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Driving to Snæfellsás Peninsula, Iceland

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Tuesday, May 19 – The poor sleep we’ve been getting here in Iceland was making it difficult to get moving in the morning. We got off to a late start. For breakfast, we took the car to a bakery in a shopping center in the suburbs. Parking was free and abundant.

We realized the bakery was part of a local chain. The signs were all in Icelandic, with no English. But the people behind the counter spoke English and were happy to explain what was in the assorted goodies. This bakery was about half as expensive as the places we’d gone to downtown.

The food was great. We’ve been blown away by the food here in Iceland — we haven’t had a single mediocre meal, let alone a bad meal. Once we finished eating, we set off, this time heading north on Highway 1. It was another beautiful day, sunny and 49 degrees Fahrenheit (9.44 celsius). 

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