Iceland, Day 4: Studlagil Canyon, Vox Baths, and Fossadalur

A Day of Rocks, Lupine, Waterfalls, and Warmth

Click here for a tour of Studlagil Canyon (slideshow)

At 5:30, I awoke to a dusting of snow on everything in the campground, including our windshield. As the snow continued to fall, I was suddenly even more grateful that I was "glamping" in a camper van rather than sleeping on the ground in a tent.  With that in mind, I rolled over and went back to sleep.  After all, who gets up at 5:30 while on vacation?  or ever?

As we hit the road for the day, I realized that even with a good heating system, I had turned into some semblance of a popsicle whose chances of thawing out were diminishing with every passing kilometer.  I held out hope that the temperatures would bump up a little bit as we started to head south.  

But first, while still in the North, we headed toward the stunning basalt-column-ridden Studlagil Canyon (home of fascinating hexagonal basalt -- who ever imagined that rocks could crack into perfect hexagons just because a ton of molten lava happened to pass by?)

Leaving the canyon and navigating several miles of terrain that barely passed for a road, we drove past a few mind-boggling waterfalls en route to Vox Baths, land of delightfully warm (and some hot) pools.  We took an afternoon off to bask and soak until my teeth forgot about all their chattering of the previous days and my body temperature returned to a comforting 98.6 degrees. 

I spent the afternoon A Happy Floridian... 

After leaving the baths, we turned further south and drove along the coastline that was as was now typical to our driving experience... ridiculously stunning.  We had to endure another forty or fifty miles of amazing scenery and stopping at every possible portion of road that looked remotely like a safe turnout to gawk and take ever more photos. 

Our inability to continue driving for any length of time predictably led to arriving at campsite relatively late. But by mid-evening, we landed at our very favorite campsite of the trip (Fossaadalur), greeted by a warm and friendly camp host, lovely facilities, and yes, you guessed it -- another round of mind boggling landscape and views. 

I fell asleep dreaming about snow covered mountains, voluminous waterfalls, and endless fields of lupine.