Following our trip around the Golden Circle we drove two hours east to our hostel in Vik, a small fishing town by the southern coast, with a population of slightly over 300. Our hostel here was the Puffin hostel. Easy to find due to Vik’s small size, the Puffin hostel was also quiet and comfortable. We booked a two bunk-bed room. For our one night stay it was a good value stay.

Our plan after staying in Vik was to drive eastward to Jokulsarlon glacier lake and then back to Reykjavik. A long journey, it would take about six hours of total driving. Once settled on our decision, we woke up early and didn’t look back.

The drive eastward is very easy. The Ring Road (also known as route 1) is Iceland’s major road and encircles the whole island, roughly 830 miles in length. If you drive on this road, you will almost certainly see signs for Iceland’s major nature attractions at branch-off side roads. Slightly over two hours east of Vik we arrived early at our first destination of the day, Jokulsarlon glacier lake, which also happened to be our turn around point.

Jokulsarlon glacier lake is a special site, demonstrative of the cold regions of the north. We learned that it is actually a lagoon formed by the natural damming of the runoff of Jokulsarlon glacier. It has grown significantly since its natural creation in the early 70s. It was definitely something we had never seen before as this was our first time this far north on the globe. It felt like being behind The Wall from Game of Thrones. The water was an icy blue and the icebergs themselves an inspiring crystal blue. Some of the icebergs would shift and flip over as we watched and we spotted several seal bobbing in the distance through the water. There is a small visitor center at the side of the lake and there are opportunities to go out on small motorboats to visit the icebergs more closely. We did not do this as we felt we were already pretty close while on the shore of the lake.

Directly across the from the lagoon at the edge of the ocean is a black sand beach which also looked like it came out of a movie. The black sand was dotted with various sizes of ice blocks and the shoreline sprinkled with chair and couch-sized icebergs that one could actually sit in (comfy but cold on your bottom!). It felt like a different world.

Since we had an early start we were able to spend several hours at these spots and we started our drive back toward Reykjavik close to noon. We planned for several stops on the way back, including a short visit to Vatnajokull National Park. This is Iceland’s largest national park, created from the combination of two previous national parks. The entrance we would use was previously known as Skaftafell Park, named for the Skaftafell glacier. It cost 7000 Iceland Kroner to park, a small fee. There is a visitor center and from here we chose a short easy trail that would take us to the base of the Skaftafell glacier and back in about 40 minutes each way. The walk was easy but the cold made it seem longer. The glacier base is located next to a smaller glacier lake and appears desolate and pristine. Fortunately we made it to the glacier at just the right time, as it started to drizzle halfway through our return walk to the car.

Our next stop was back to Vik and would mark the halfway point of our day’s journey. While in Vik, we gave into our cravings for snack food and splurged at a local grocery (Kronan), buying crackers, Nutella, cashews, and a bag of popcorn. We ate through half of this food right in the grocery parking lot, hopefully nobody judged us!

Next we drove to Reynisfjara black sand beach. Similar to the beach at Jokulsarlon, except slightly more crowded without icebergs, Reynisfjara is one of Iceland’s most famous beaches. Particularly it is known for an area of hexagonal basalt columns nestled into the seaside cliffs that are happily climbed and photographed. Additionally, it is known for 3 large basalt sea columns off the coast that make for a noticeable landmark from both near and far. Despite being beautiful, it can also be a dangerous beach, having claimed several lives due to “sneaker waves” that surprise unaware visitors.

The day did not end at Reynisfjara. Next on the way back to Reykjavik was the well-known waterfall Skogafoss. For the Game of Thrones fans, this is pictured in season 8 when Daenarys and Jon fly away on dragons and end up at a waterfall.

Skogafoss is a powerful waterfall and our second favorite waterfall of the trip after Gullfoss. Walking up close to the waterfall’s base, you can feel the mist and get rather wet, which would be especially nice in the warmest days of summer. There are steps that can take you to the top of the falls, but becoming weary as we were, we did not partake in the climb. We did, however, partake in the Skogafoss hotel’s restaurant for some food. We ended up ordering a tasty curry chicken and pasta dish.

Ok, we had two more stops theorized for our drive back to Reykjavik now. Our second to last stop was the now popularized DC (Douglas Commercial) plane wreck on Solheimasandur beach.. The remnant of a 1973 crash landing, this plane wreck has become a popular photograph site. Getting to it is relatively easy but takes a bit of walking, a little less than 2 miles each way on a marked, flat terrain. The plane is reportedly on private grounds but people are allowed to walk on this path. Additionally, we were interested to see that there is now a bus that takes people from the roadside parking lot to the plane as well, however for an inflated cost of about 2500 Kroner. We did not use this service and instead chose to hike the full distance. The hike felt long and the wind was cold but we covered up well. On arrival to the plane we found that it was fairly crowded. There was actually what appeared to be an engaged couple getting their engagement photos standing in various locations on the plane. I’m sure we accidentally photo-bombed a few. An interesting site to the see in the desolate landscape, we appreciated that we had decided to make the journey.

Upon reaching our car, we readied ourselves for one more stop, Seljalandsfoss, rumored to be yet another beautiful waterfall. Now we must say, by this point it was getting to be late evening and we were nearing the end of our energy tanks. What was supposed to be a stop and short visit to the waterfall ended up being what can only be called a nature drive-by. The falls are easily visible from the parking lot and not wanting to pay for more parking at the end of our day, we quickly snapped a photo of the waterfall. In all honesty, the waterfall is not a powerful as either Gullfoss or Skogafoss. It still does make for a pretty view on the cliff-side. The fun point about this waterfall is that if we had gotten out, visitors are able to walk behind the water into a small cave. This would have been ideal, but, you know, we were pooped. And so we made our way back to Reykjavik.