We’re staying another night in the hotel we reached last night; and today we didn’t go that far away from our home base, but we still did a lot of things!

We had a few spots we wanted to get to, and we had seen many other possibilities in the region. We had some worries this morning because at first it looked like the road to Dettifoss might not be easily accessible with our small car, but the information that we had first found was outdated, and the road was a beautiful paved road all along.

We left shortly after these breakfast worries to go a few kilometers away to have a look at the Skútustadagrig pseudo-craters – pseudo-craters because they haven’t been created by a magma chamber but by a steam explosion when lava came in contact with the lake. Beautiful area, cool formations, and amazing views on the Mýtavn lake.

A bit further away, Höfði was a small hike in a woody area which, considering the low amount of trees in this country, is somewhat of an oddity. The viewpoint at the end of the wood was lovely, and it was a nice and quiet moment.

Next was one of our “must do” for the day: the lava field in Dimmuborgir. It was apparently a “must do” for many people, because this may well be the place where we’ve seen the most tourists so far! And it’s not surprising: it’s a really peculiar place. It’s full of lava pillars that were formed as a lava lake drained and steam erupted, and there’s a lot of structures that really feel unique. The site is well developed with multiple paths of various lengths going through the lava field. Walking around these was definitely a great experience (we may or may not have made Astrosmurf references.)

Our next “must see” was Dettifoss, and we decided to go there immediately after that since it was already the beginning of the afternoon. We made a very short stop on the way when we saw a lake with an amazing blue/turquoise color next to a geothermic power plant.

After a few dozens of kilometers in a landscape that I’d qualify as “desolate”, we arrived at the Dentifoss site. Dentifoss is the second largest waterfall (in terms of water volume) of Europe (the first one being the Rhine falls in Switzerland). I’ve been to the Rhine falls, and the weirdest thing about Dentifoss is how long it takes before you actually see water. We saw the rainbow of the fall much before seeing any water at all, and the surrounding area looks very dry (it’s mostly basalt columns everywhere).

But Dentifoss itself is awe-inspiring. I was speechless when we reached it, and for a while after that I could only make incomprehension noises and gestures.

It’s powerful, it demands respect, it’s incredibly beautiful. The water is an opaque grey, probably from the rock around, and the swirls before the waterfall are mesmerizing.

We walked to Selfoss as well, which is on the same site; and Selfoss is probably suffering from the comparison with its big sister. It’s still a grandiose waterfall (after all, the water volume is comparable, even if it’s not split exactly in the same way), and the area just before the waterfall is beautiful.

Our initial hope was to be able to reach the canyon in Ásbyrgi, but it was too tight, timing-wise, to be sure to be back in our hotel vicinity for dinner time. Instead, we drove back to where we were coming from, and did a stop in Námafjall – we had seen the site from the road on the way, and it looked interesting. Interesting it was, but beware the smell! It’s a geothermal site with a lot of fumerolles and clay pots, and it’s super impressive to see the gray clay boil. The steam coming out of these was also impressive. A great visit, but the strong smell (more than sulfur in there, we think) can be at times overwhelming.

Finally, we still had a bit of time before we had to go back, so we went to see the Krafla crater that was basically on the other side of the road. It’s also the site of a geothermal power plant, and we were both fascinated by the industrial infrastructure around it, pipes going down the volcano and high pressure steam coming out of the vents. The crater itself was also beautiful, with some water at the bottom, and very cool to see from above.

With that, we reached the end of our day; we had dinner at a hotel next to ours – the food was tasty (I particularly liked my broccoli soup), if not super memorable. And we’re back to the hotel, I’m hurting a bit everywhere (it’s been two fairly intensive walking days!) but I’m incredibly happy with the great day we’ve had today.

The photo album for this day is here: Iceland – 2025-08-19.