We stayed at this cool guesthouse near Dettifoss. We started the day with a trip to Asbyrgi canyon.
Asbyrgi Canyon, also known as Shelter of the Gods, is a glacial canyon and forest. Its a horseshoe shaped depression, the canyon is more than 1 km wide and 3.5 km long. It was formed after a catastrophic glacial flood from Jokulsa Glacier thousands of years ago and is surrounded by steep cliffs that are more than 100m high.
We wanted to stop at Hafragilfoss, but we missed the entry point to get to this site and so we kept going to Dettifoss. We drove on route 864 to get to the eastern side of Dettifoss. It's a very bumpy road with gravel and rocks.
If one wants to drive on smoother roads, it's better to take Route 862, which takes you to the western side of Dettifoss. Route 862 is paved whereas Route 864 was not paved. Do note- Route 864 is open only few months in the year.
Dettifoss is considered to be the second most powerful waterfall in Europe. Its about 100 m wide and 45m high. Dettifoss's waters come from the glacial river, Jokulsa a Fjollum, which flows from the Vatnajokull glacier, the largest ice cap in Iceland and Europe.
Its magnificent and impressive to see the volume of water going over the falls every second!
There were some rainbows in the falls from the mist and sunshine.
The waterfall is loud and thunderous !
Next, we decided to hike over to see Selfoss. Its about a 1 km hike over a boulder field to get to Selfoss. Selfoss ended up being my most favorite waterfalls in Iceland.
Selfoss is beautiful - its a very wide waterfall
The flow of water is mesmerizing !
This was one day it was warm and we didn't need our jackets or gloves !
Both of us did star-jump together. I am not able to lift myself much from the ground. So Neel sat down and took the photo from the ground level to make it seem that I did an actual half-decent star jump !
I had packed a beer for Alex for lunch and it made his day!
We all sat watching the waterfall and had our packed lunch. We usually packed a meat sandwich or a peanut butter jelly sandwich or a cheese sandwich for lunch. We also packed a skyr each and sometimes fruits. We also carried some trail mix and other small snacks.
Alex took a nap ! He is famous for napping wherever he can :-)
There were some nice places to walk around there. Lots of puddles of water.
We hiked back through the boulder field to Dettifoss. Then we drove along a very bumpy road and got on ring road to head to Seydisfjordur, our next stop.
On the way, we saw a waterfall and made a quick stop to explore it ! There were so many such waterfalls and trails.
The water was always very clean, clear and we sometimes drank from the streams.
The road from the town of Egilsstadir to Seydisfjordur is one of the most scenic drives in Iceland!
We drove through low lying clouds. This was such a cool experience!
We stayed in this beautiful cabin. The views from the cabin was over the fjord and was just perfect!
There was a funky ladder/steps to get over the fence, just behind the cabin. Once you cross that, you hit a trail with so many waterfalls!
We headed out to explore the town. This town is one of the cutest and prettiest town in Iceland.
This pale blue church is very quaint and has a rainbow-colored road leading to it.
The town of Seydisfjordur is very walkable and so scenic. This city ended up being the most beautiful city for us in Iceland !
How scenic the views were !
The houses were very brightly colored and such lovely colors too.
Some of the houses had waterfalls right behind the homes. The views were just stunning !
We went to this restaurant with a great view. It was quite crowded inside. When we opted to sit outside, they provided us with blankets. It was nice and comfy!
The view over the fjord from the cabin - this was close to midnight.
The place had some cool video games- very old games. Alex and Neel played some chess and Satto played pac-man, I think. I need to confirm with him the game he played but he said it was so much fun to play the old game !
Unfortunately, we had to checkout by 10-11 am. We really wished we had stayed here one more day. There were some really cool hikes with amazing views over the fjord that we did not get time to do (one such hike is the hike to Tvisöngur). If you ever plan a trip to this city, I would highly recommend spending a whole day here!
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