Iceland 2016 - Day 3: Langjökull to Þingvellir

Day 3 started with an early breakfast at the hotel, so we had time for a scenic ride into the hinterlands for our Into The Glacier experience.

We opted to skip the shuttle ride from Húsafell and drove up to the base camp. The road turned to gravel, and we started to see ominous signs. Literally.

It's probably too blurry to read, but there's an alert at the top of the GPS that reads "Alert: Is your car suitable for this?" or something like that.

Of course it was.

We made it to base camp, checked in, and admired the glacier-driving-capable vehicles in the parking lot.

They air down the tires to drive in the slushy snow that's on top of the glacier in the summer. Upon returning to the road, they have to inflate the tires back to normal pressure.

Our trip up to the glacier was in a converted military 8x8 truck. I think the guide said it was originally a missile launcher.

Riding in this truck through the soft snow was a bit like being on a boat in rough water. It has to traverse crevasses, and occasionally leans over steeply enough that they have seatbelts and the guide reassured everyone that it wouldn't tip.

Above the equilibrium line, there's a tunnel carved into the glacier. We entered through an enormous culvert, donned crampons, and toured around the tunnel complex for over an hour.

The air inside is a constant 32F, all year. As it is the peak of summer (the air temp at ~4200 feet elevation was around 50F I think?), the ceiling inside rains down ice-cold water throughout the tunnels.

There are far too many photos to post here. You'll have to go view the album if you want to see more.

By the time we got back to the car, it was after 4 PM and we hadn't really eaten anything since breakfast, so we drove down to Húsafell and had... an early dinner? at the cafe/restaurant there.

After early-dinner, we started aiming the car in the general direction of the Selfoss area, with some planned stops along the way.

But first, only a few miles down the road, we couldn't pass up Hraunfossar and Barnafossar.

Next up, a quick tour around Deildartunguhver hot springs, the most productive one in Iceland (flow rate).

As with many places all over the island, boiling water just seeps out of the ground.

There is a pumping station at this spring that pumps hot water to populated areas.

As we made our way back downhill, towards the coast, we stopped in Borgarnes to find some sort of farmer's market that was recommended as a stop. It was already closed, though, so we visited The Settlement Center instead. I think it was just after 7 PM, and we still had 2 hours of driving to do, so we skipped the exhibition(s) and just used it as a pit stop.

We decided to take the scenic route to our lodging for the night, in Sólheimar, through Þingvellir National Park. The scenic route was also the shortest route, it turns out. But not the easiest route.

I don't think I'd ever driven on a single stretch of gravel road for that long.

And some of it was under construction, around the Uxahryggir area.

By my estimate, about 60 of the ~85 kilometers between Borgarnes and Þingvellir is unsurfaced.

The estimated arrival time on the GPS slowly increased, and we arrived at Þingvellir around 9:45 PM.

Much of the "what to see" there is the Almannagjá rift valley, including Öxarárfoss.

It was after 10 PM when we left, punching in GPS coordinates for our final destination, as usual. The hotel/guesthouse was only about 45 minutes away, but the last direction on the GPS was a bit troubling.

Sólheimar is easy to miss (and the coordinates seem to always be slightly off), but we eventually found Sesseljuhus, got our room keys, and unloaded the car into our rooms in the shared guesthouse around 11 PM.

Yes, that is grass growing on the roof.

Tomorrow, we are touring the rest of the Golden Circle.