Myvatn

July 4, 5, & 6

If you were to make a comparison of places in Iceland to places in the States then Myvatan would be Aspen. It is out of the way, a trip to get to and everything costs an arm and a leg. However, there is an amazing lake, tons of hiking and a natural hot bath that could ease even the most stressed of travelers. Our trip to Myvatn started out with us setting up camp right on the lake shore and taking our usual walking tour of town. Since it was the 4th of July we thought it would only be right to have a BBQ that night and the three French guys who were on our bus seeing another opportunity to party decided to join in. The great thing about being here is at 10:30 at night the sun is still high in the sky and it feels like late afternoon, the bad thing is we stay up too late every night. The BBQ went into the wee hours of the morning, just the right way to prepare ourselves for our day of hiking the next day.
We woke up on the morning of the 5th to a bright sunny day, which was a welcome change from the cloudy rainy days we had been having. The plan for the day was to hike to the top of the Hverfell volcano, then head to the natural hot baths. The hike to the Volcano was great, we passed through lava fields, saw a range of Icelandic birds, horses and sheep and caught several great veiws of the lake. From the top of the volcano you could see the surrounding area and the lake and we realized why this place was held in such high regard by the locals. We hiked down off of the volcano and into the Dimmuborgir lava field on the other side where huge pillars of lava made unique formations and an even more unique landscape. The landscape was so unique as a matter of fact, the Astronauts trained there before their mission to the moon.
From Dimmuborgir we were off to the Natural baths. Now Myvatn has no bus or transport system, either you have a car, you rent a bike, you hitch a ride or you walk. Most of the time we walked, but on the way from the lava fields to the natural hot baths Ginger got her first experience with hitching when a nice German couple took pity on us walking and gave us a ride back into town cutting 4k off of our trip. We still had to walk 4k to get to the hot baths but it was really worth the effort when we got there. The water in the pool was a turquois blue and it was the most relaxing feeling to soak in the warm water while looking out at the mountains and the lake. We spent over two hours in the water and even got a bit sunburned for our efforts. We were able to catch a ride back to town and back to camp. At the end of the day we had walked about 10 miles but it was well worth it.
On the morning of the 6th we had arranged to go horse back riding. The Icelanders are very proud of their horses and they have no problem telling you how great their horses are. Icelandic "pure" bred horses are a smaller breed of horses and they have more gaits than other horses. When we arrived at the stables we got to help corral and saddle the horses. There were only three in our group so we got to see more things and get the horses up to a gallop a couple of times. We rode through the lava fields and rode up to the foot of a mountain where we got another view of the town and the lake. Horse back riding was the last event for us in Myvatn and we caught the bus to Akureyri, the second largest city in Iceland. Akureyri is an amazing town in the northern harbor settled right at the foot of the mountains.