Svalbufa, Jun 17th

After hiking from Arnastapi to Hellnar, I got back in the car and continued driving around the Snaefellsness Peninsula towards my next intended stop on the north side. As I did, far in the distance I noticed a rock formation that looked like something out of this world. From my angle and with the sun coming from the side, it looked like a pirate ship emerging from the ground and out into the sea. It looked both intriguing and fascinating so when I saw a parking area close to it I stopped, grabbed my camera and went out exploring.

As a hike is not impressive or long (like a lot of the most well-known places in Iceland). From the parking lot, there’s a trail that goes straight out to a viewpoint at the cliff edge. I wasn’t too interested in that after hiking along the beach for a while, so I took a foot path heading towards the rock formation in the distance. 

The trail descends a bit to a flat area. Looking back, you can see the view point up in the hill protected with a fence. From this angle I think the views are better as you can see all the basalt formation on the cliff wall.

As I got closer to the rock formation I was aiming for, the form and shape didn’t change what I saw in the beginning. It still looked like a gigantic ship breaking free from a rock trap

At first, I thought I would be able to scramble up there but as I got closer that idea disappeared. The edges and walls are steeper than what they appear from the distance. I found a path to go around and went exploring and to my surprise, the rock took on another completely different shape form the other side. Now it looked almost like a Chinese dog or maybe a lamb looking onto sea.

As I walked back towards the car, my views included Nordurbufa a glaciated peak in the middle of the peninsula

Arnastapi to Hellnar, Jun 17th

Located in the southeast corner of the Snaefellsness peninsula, Arnastapi is a little village with a nice park overlooking the ocean and a dock. There are several paths for easy hikes that explore the cliffs and some impressive arches along the coast. For the more adventurous, there’s a trail that follows the coast line all the way to Hellnar crossing the Hellnahraun lava field.

When I got there, I was welcomed by a bright sunny and warm day, so I started from the very end of the road going around the dock towards the park. From here the views are already splendid as you pass a small gorge with a tiny rocky beach.

A small pond and Stapafell, a volcanic mountain fills the scene opposite to the sea

Walking around is very pleasant and the trail goes over several features that are worth stopping. The first is probably the most visited one, a rock arch that stands high above the sea. There’s a path to go over it or around depending on the views you want to get, but either one is nice.

As you get closer to the cliff edges, you can hear the birds that use every nook and cranny to set their nest. The contrast between the gray rocks, brown grass and birds is just fantastic.

The trail continues towards the Lava filed with even more features, most of which exposing columnar basalt that almost tell the story of big explosions and earth moving. As you continue, several chimney holes appear under the cliff edges

Eventually the trail gains a bit of elevation as it traverses the Hellnaharun lava field before descending on the other side towards Hellnar. The trail eventually ends at a road where a nice coffee shop awaits those that need a pastry and a chair under the sun. Next to the trail end, there’s a path that goes down to a rocky beach and another arch. What drove me there were some rock formations that, depending on where you see them from, the resemble a river of rocks. You can almost see how rocks flowed at some point and cooled down to the shape they are in now.

Further in I found another wall with birds nesting on the rock faces illuminated by a ray of sun that passed thru a crack. I stayed there for a while admiring the beauty before starting my hike back

Towards the end, rather than going around the coast line, I took a different path to visit the Bardur Snaefekksas statue (or structure). He is the mythical, half human half troll, protector and settler of the Snaefellsness Peninsula. It’s definitely an imposing structure

From there, I took a straight path towards the car without noticing some nests on the floor. In a matter of seconds, I had hundreds of birds dive bombing me, so I had to make a run for it all the way to the car. In the distance I could hear people laughing at my fortune but what the heck, it happens.

You can see the rest of the pictures here

Raudfeldsgja Gorge, Jun 17th

Not to far north from my first stop at Bjarnarfoss was my first planned short hike, and it was a bit of a gamble. For what I had read, the hike path only took you to the entrance of the gorge but supposedly, it’s possible to go in a bit further depending on how you handle tight spaces. Either way it sounded interesting. Finding the place was actually quite easy. As you drive along Utnesvegur, the main road, mountains rise from and sink on the side. This one in particular as a gigantic crack in the middle.

After parking my car, I started walking towards the mouth of the crack and noticed a patch of snow and some people walking on it. As I got closer, I noticed the patch of snow was coming out of the mouth of the Gorge and it had a big cave under it where a small stream was flowing out. It looked a bit unsafe to me so rather than step over it, I crossed the stream and approached on the other side

The mouth is very narrow and it looked like you could go in for a bit provided there was now snow. Looking up I saw how narrow the canyon is which probably explains why there was still snow in there. I guess it doesn’t get a lot of sunlight or heat.

I explored a little around and admired the surrounding scenery before heading back down and on to my next adventure.  

Bjarnarfoss, Jun 17th

The day after I got to Iceland I woke up early in the morning and headed north towards the Snaefellsnes Peninsula as there were a bunch of things I wanted to check out. I would learn quickly that in Iceland, the majority of well known sites are an easy walk from a main road and hiking distances are not that long. If you’re sticking to the known places, you can cover quite a bit in a single day. My first stop was Bjarnarfoss which coincidentally was not in my list. It just happened to be on the way. As I saw the waterfall in the distance, I started paying a bit more attention to the road and found a well signed turn to the parking area giving access to it. The path is a well laid out with an overlapping plastic mesh they use to prevent erosion and to provide good traction. From the distance the waterfall looks majestic as it drops from the top of an almost flat mountain over a basalt wall bouncing a couple of times before it reaches the bottom.

I followed the trail to the end and a bit more to take a closer picture before heading back to the car and onto the next adventure