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