Highland Adventure to Kerlingarfjoll (Day4)
We woke up late, especially since S had a fever and was not feeling her best, but we did get ready because we knew we would start feeling great once we stepped out. After having breakfast at the hotel, we got back to Hvítserkur at about 10am. We noticed that a high tide was incoming. R went down to the beach from the observation deck area but quickly came back, so we spent only about half an hour in the deck area just enjoying the time as the tide started crashing in higher ebbs on the big rock and the beach.
After making a pit stop at Blönduós to grab some coffee and buy groceries that would last us for snacks and lunch, we kept on moving forward to our destination for the day - Kerlingarfjöll mountain range located in Iceland’s central highlands via Hveradalir, a geothermal wonderland of steaming vents, boiling mud pools, and rainbow-colored hot springs.
Previously, we got a quick taste of the famous rough and gravelly F roads of Iceland, but this was our first time we would drive a lot on these F roads which included plenty of river crossings.
At about 3pm we reached Hveravellir, parked our car and explored the area for about a couple of hours. In the central highland of Iceland, this is a beautiful geothermal area, known as Hveravellir or the Hot Spring Fields. It is one of the pearls of Iceland, a nature reserve 650 meters above sea level. After driving through the vast, barren highland it is so lovely to encounter such an oasis.
There is a lovely hot pool in a geothermal river here and it's tucked away in the wilderness , in between two of Iceland's glaciers, Langjökull and Hofsjökull glaciers. There are also several board walks with access to the pools and the hot springs and we walked around smelling and photographing these erupting wonders.
As we got close to Kerlingarfjoll Highland Base hotel, we stopped at Gýgjarfoss, a waterfall in the aptly named extremely beautiful and cloudy town of Asgardur.
There aren’t actually many waterfalls in the Icelandic Highland that have become popular or significant attractions. One of the reasons is the relatively short time that the Highland in Iceland is open: only from the middle of June until the middle of September. However, that doesn't mean that Iceland lacks spectacular waterfalls in the Highland, with waterfalls like Fagrifoss, Ófærufoss, and Sigöldufoss being good examples. The other reason is the difficulty of accessing many waterfalls in the Highland, with some requiring a long hike to reach and enjoy. One of the beautiful waterfalls in the Highland that is reasonably accessible is Gýgjarfoss and since we were driving to Kerlingarfjöll, we had planned to keep it on our itinerary.
It was close to 6pm when we checked in at the Highland Base Hotel and had a nice cup of coffee admiring the view outside. It was beginning to get very foggy, so we decided to brave the fog and quickly made the drive to Hveradalir.
There are two ways to get here: hiking from the hotel or just driving to the geothermal area. From the hotel it is a 3 km drive on a rough, gravel road to get to the Hveradalir car park and takes about 10 minutes. The parking lot overlooks the geothermal area, and from the top there’s a steep walk down a series of staircases to get to the valley.
Being one of the largest geothermal areas in all of Iceland, Hveradalir offers hot springs you can view up close and others that can be admired from a safe distance. The site is surrounded by the rhyolite mountains of the Kerlingarfjoll range, making for some spectacular and colorful surroundings and excellent hiking opportunities. Hiking here is a must because no pictures can do justice to what you see, you need to simply see the mammoth vastness with colors of yellow ochre and burnt sienna in order to make memories of this extravagantly gorgeous place. S in all her excitement and euphoria mentioned that all her fever and unease had vanished completely.
We got back to our hotel for our 8.30 dinner reservation and had a grand icelandic buffet meal. Did not venture out aurora hunting that night because there was a cloud cover ; moreover over the next 4 days we had loads of “on the glacier” activities planned, so a tired but completely content couple fell asleep ready quickly after retiring to their room.
