Iceland 8: Lake Myvatn

Top Tips:
- Lake Myvatn is the best place to visit in Iceland if you only have a few days. It showcases several iconic landscapes in a small land area, including crater lakes, mountains, pseudocraters, hot springs, lava fields of the hoodoo and rolling hill varieties, and geothermal regions.
- Dettifoss is a must-see attraction nearby Lake Myvatn (see Dettifoss).
- Be sure to visit the impressive Krafla Lava Fields.
- There are few restaurant options in the Lake Myvatn region, so I wouldn't recommend staying more than 2-3 nights.
- Myvatn Naturebaths are nowhere near as impressive (or as warm) as the Blue Lagoon in Reykjavik.

Friday, September 6

Lake Myvatn and the pseudo-craters

Pseudocraters

Today was spent exploring the area around Lake Myvatn. We started with some walks near the lake – to Höfði trail is a short walk to a viewpoint of the lake, and Skútustaðir trail leads you around the pseudo-craters in the lake. Yesterday we drove past these areas and they were much prettier with the sunny blue sky than they were on the overcast morning. With the grey sky and the winds disturbing the lake, the walk didn’t capture the serenity of the scenery we had seen yesterday.

Lake Myvatn

Höfði trail

Skútustaðir trail

Dimmuborgir

A short 4WD track nearby Dimmuborgir

After this we walked through the Dimmuborgir lava formations. These formations are like hoodoos made of volcanic rock. The lava has settled in unique formations, some even forming large arches – like the one we saw on the way to the Hverfjall mountain. We started down this trail with the intention of climbing Hverfjall, but decided to turn back when we realized we’d be walking a few kilometers just to reach the mountain and we had too many other things to see that day.

We returned to the hotel for lunch, eating at the Gamli Bistro beside the hotel. We ordered the sandwiches, all of which were delicious and not at all greasy (like our impression from yesterday). My dad got the local specialty of the geysir bread with smoked arctic char. The geysir bread is like a rye bread that is cooked with the geothermal heat of the hot springs. We were happy enough with lunch that we ordered dessert – which was geysir bread pudding with whipped cream.

View from Gamli Bistro

Ordinarily I wouldn’t eat a single component of this concoction – rye bread, cinnamon and spices, or citrus inclusions, but these flavors mélanged together to make something pretty tasty. It wasn’t a pudding like your regular bread and butter pudding, but more of a dessert pudding.

Dimmuborgir

Krafla and Viti

It was a short drive up to the Krafla lava fields, where we met an exciting scene. We parked just outside of the Viti Crater Lake, and saw this poor guy throwing his belongings out of his car; his car’s hood was sparking. Some folks had called the emergency number already and the guy was looking for his fire extinguisher, but by the time he had found it the fire had already formed, and it eventually engulfed the entire car.

All of the tourists couldn’t help but get distracted by the spectacle – it’s not often you see a car catch fire. Even the guy who owned the car ended up standing back and taking a few photos of it with his camera phone. Being in the middle of nowhere, there was a heavy delay for the fire brigade to arrive, and by the time they did the car was long lost. We all learnt that gas tanks don’t explode.

The aftermath

Anyway… the Viti crater lake was beautiful, with crystal blue water. You can walk along the top of the crater.

Viti Crater Lake

Just a few hundred meters away is the Leirhnjúker lava fields, which was my favorite area near Lake Myvatn. Here you can find geothermally active areas with bubbling pools in the ground, as well as smooth black lava fields, the complete opposite to the Dimmuborgir hoodoo formations.

Throughout the trail there are areas of steam escaping from the cracks in the lava rocks, and the signs request you stay on the trails to avoid accidentally stepping in a burning hot zone. The view from the parking lot doesn’t do this attraction justice; it’s about a 500 meter walk to get to the lava fields that are blocked from the parking lot’s view by a hill.

Myvatn Naturebaths

After our long day of seeing the variety of natural wonders available in this area – with plenty more attractions that we missed due to time constraints – we went to Jarðböðin to relax at the Myvatn Naturebaths hot springs. Admission is about $35 and the facilites weren’t quite as nice as at the Blue Lagoon near Reykjavik but it was much cheaper. The view from the pool was amazing; with the pool extending right to the edge of the hillside you can see the lake and pseudocraters in the distance. The downside is that the pool was an uncomfortable and uneven temperature – I clearly wasn’t the only one who felt cold because almost everyone in the pools were crowding near the heat sources. The temperature was so polarized that you could be standing in a hot and cold patch at the same time. I wouldn’t have returned to these hot springs even if it were free, but it was nice to experience once just for the view.

For dinner we went to the Vogafjós Restaurant. This restaurant is set next to a cow shed, but the smell from the shed doesn’t affect the restaurant itself. We had a great meal of the lamb, except for Mike who discovered mushrooms in his meatballs sauce and in the lamb dish. So if you don’t like mushrooms you’ll need to ask about this before ordering.

We shared the dessert. One was the chocolate lava cakes, which was like a nut-based biscuit covered in molten chocolate. The other dessert was a rhubarb cake – we saw most places tend to serve a rhubarb inspired dessert so I’m inclined to think it’s an Icelandic flavor. The rhubarb cake was amazing and moist, served with delicious fresh whipped cream. We spent another night at Hotel Reynihlid.

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