Húsafell
When the sun rose, we got to see Húsafell by day. It's a tiny town, but the campsite is supposedly very popular during the summer. They've also got a hotel, restaurant, gas station, golf course, and camp amenities - showers, bathrooms. Unfortunately, it's closed for the winter, so we just parked outside the campground bathrooms. You can stay one night on any public land, no questions asked.

Húsafell was pretty with its snowy mountains. The roads were decent and definitely had a layer of ice on them. There was probably 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. We were happy to make it back down to the areas without snow.

Deildartunguhver
When we first put this into Google Maps, it accidentally took us to Víðgelmir, a lava tube in the middle of the Hallmunderhraun lava field. It wasn't open for guided tours, and we weren't about to climb into an underground cave at -5 degrees Celsius by ourselves. So we trekked it back to our real destination, which was Deildartunguhver. Deildartunguhver is the largest hot spring in the world and the highest flowing spring in Europe. It produces 180 liters (or about 47 1/2 gallons) of water per second, and the water is 212 degrees Fahrenheit. It's been utilized for central heating since 1925. Since Deildartunguhver is only 19 meters (about 62 feet) above sea level, it's pumped via distribution pipes. You can see these pipes steaming and see where they go underground because snow melts in those locations. The water is distributed to Akranes, Borgarnes, and Hvanneyri, along with several other rural areas. The temperature is 170 degrees F when it reaches Borgarnes and 149 degrees F when it reaches Akranes. The water reaches Akranes in 24 hours. At 74 kilometers (46 miles), the pipe is the longest of its kind.

Gerðuberg
On our way to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, we happened upon Gerðuberg. What an amazing natural phenomenon! Giant basalt columns line up, forming a geometric cliff side that's really interesting. As an architect, it reminded me of soldier course of stone.

Búðir
This stop wasn't on our original itinerary, but Justin knew I had to see the church. Iceland is dotted with beautiful little churches, simple in their design but spectacular in their setting. Búðir's church, Búðakirkja (kirkja = church) is incredible! I love black and white. I also love churches, and so does Justin (note: architects). Búðakirkja is a black and white church sandwiched between mountains and the Atlantic shoreline. I was in heaven. By far my favorite church so far. The door ring is from 1703!

Also, we'll drop in a great shot of a random waterfall down a mountain next to Búðakirkja. Justin wants to buy the house in front of it and make that our summer home. I approve.

Hellnar
Hellnar has a great little Visitor's Center for the Snæfellsjökull National Park. The lady working there was very nice and helpful with our itinerary. We weren't expecting to be stopping a lot on Snæfellsnes Peninsula, but man I wish we built in more time. Such a neat area! There's a cave tour right below the glacier Mount Snæfellsjökull (more on this below...super neat!), but we opted to keep moving. We stopped at the overlook to look out over the Atlantic. Cold, windy, but pretty!

Malarrif
We headed down to Malarrif, where you could drive part of the way down and then walk the rest of the way. There's an interesting lighthouse there that was built in 1917, and it really looks like a rocket ship.

We walked over the black pebble beaches and lava rock to get some great sunset shots of Lóndrangar next to the Þúfubjarg cliffs. Lóndrangar is two rockstacks at 75 m and 61 m (246 ft and 200 ft) thought to be leftover volcanic plugs. The area was once used by fishermen to set up camp over winter. It is surrounded by a black pebble beach and black lava rocks. Above the Þúfubjarg is the SvalÞúfa hill and crater. The farmers in this area don't make hay here because the hay belongs to the elves. Side note: 1/3 of Iceland has a university degree, and over 1/2 of Iceland believes in elves.

Snæfellsjökull National Park
Have you ever read Journey to the Conclusion enter of the Earth by Jules Verne? That volcano that the protagonists journey down, only to pop out in Italy? That's the Snæfellsjökull volcano! The national park is dominated by this huge mountain, and the park is an active volcanic area. There are so many neat things to do in this area. You can see the lava trails where they made their way to the Atlantic. You can find puffin here, but we didn't see any. I wish we had a little more time. I think we could probably spend 2-3 days at least just staying here!

Kirkjufell
At sunset (after taking lots of pictures of the mountains and Lóndrangar), we drove along the eastern and northern shores of the peninsula. It was a beautiful drive, dotted with little fishing villages along the way. We settled on parking next to Kirkjufell (fell = hill), which we will talk about tomorrow. Hoping to see the Northern Lights tonight!

As a side note, follow us on a map! We hope you are enjoying this journey and learning about Iceland as much as we are!

The weather is holding up well so far. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next 3-4 days. We'll be traveling through some of the worse areas weather-wise. This is the Akureyri-Egillsstadir areas. They've gotten some snowfall recently. We've heard from other travelers (lots of Americans visiting Iceland this time of year!) that we should just take it slowly. They're predicting up to 3 inches of snow between Friday and Sunday. If we need to, we'll hang out it Reykjahlíð an extra day or so. Just please be thinking of us! 🙂