Day 4 in Iceland

Iceland

  1. Route of Day 4
    1. Skaftafell ⭐️
    2. Svínafellsjökull ♦️
    3. Múlagljúfur Canyon ⭐️️
    4. Fjallsárlón ♦️
  2. What else to see?
  3. Where to eat?
  4. Where to sleep?

Route of Day 4

🚗 149km & 2h29

Below you would find all the details of the most important and recommended points of interest in this area. Although it can also be complemented with more sites or activities that you will see at the end.

Skaftafell ⭐️

Skaftafell is a must-see stop in Vatnajökull National Park. You can hike on trails that lead to close-up views of a glacier tongue, as well as waterfalls and rivers.

ℹ️ Useful information
🗺️ Map
🅿️ 1.000 ISK with App Parka or at the machines
🚾 free
🚗 52min from Kirkjubæjarklaustur (in our case, but better if you can stay closer to Skaftafell)
⏳ 4h -> The route we did covers several paths with a total of 11.5km and 2h50 of walking. The rest of the time we stopped to contemplate, take pictures and have a break for a snack along the way. If the route is too long, you can do shorter routes.

  • Sjónarnípa
    This first path is made between trees and bushes, among which you can see the volcanoes in the distance and gradually discovering the lagoon and the tongue of the glacier. Although, the most amazing view is when you reach the viewpoint of Sjónarnípa, where you can see the entire tongue of the glacier Skaftafellsjökull and you can see the immensity of the ice.

    The route is 3.1km on the S5 trail from the Visitor center to Sjónarnípa (Skaftafell Glacier high-altitude observation point). The trail is easy and uncomplicated. Sometimes it has stairs to help climb the slope, but it’s not something to worry about.

    💡 Tips: In our case, from Sjónarnípa we continued a bit up the S3 trail to see if we could see some more of the glacier tongue. As there was no exciting view and besides, everything we were advancing we would have to undo, we preferred to turn around to have more time to see other things later.
  • Svartifoss
    Svartifoss waterfall is surrounded by black basalt columns, hence the name “black waterfall”.

    The route is 2.5km on the S5 & S6 trail from Sjónarnípa to Svartifoss. Continue on trail S5 from Sjónarnípa to continue completing the circular loop. Then the S6 Trail will appear on the right and follow it to Svartifoss.
  • Sjónarsker
    The views from Sjónarsker are amazing, you can see the whole extension of the national park with plains and volcanic mountains on all sides.

    The route is 0.5km on the S2 & S3 trail from Svartifoss to Sjónarsker.
    From Svartifoss follow trail S2 to a fork and take trail S3. The route is short, but steep, with quite a bit of elevation gain.

    💡 Tips:
    • At this point you are 2.2km from the Visitor Center.
    • From this point you can continue by 3 routes to Morsárdalur (3.7km), Gimludalur (5.9km) and Kristínartindar (7.2km), but in our case we did not follow them. We preferred to continue walking through the most central area of Skaftafell park.
  • Sel
    In Sel you can find the typical half-buried traditional farmhouses with grass roofs.

    The route is 0.8km on the same trail S3 that leads to Sjónarsker and continue on trail S2 to Sel.
  • Waterfalls Route
    Route of 2.8km on the same trail S2 from Sel and continue on the S2/S3 trail to the Visitor Center.

    After undoing the path on the S2 trail until the junction with the S2/S3 trail (S2 according to Google Maps and S3 according to the maps of the Park). From there you return to the Visitor Center and you will find several waterfalls along the way.
    • Magnúsarfoss
    • Hundafoss
    • Þjófafoss

💡 Tips: The S2/S3 trail has 2 paths, one on each side of the river. Our recommendation is to take the trail on the east side, which has better views of the waterfalls.

Hundafoss

💡 General Tips of the Route:

  • The route described is the following route with 11.5km and 2h50 on the move. This route is the most complete and most accessible.
  • The recommended route can be lengthened by taking more trails, but the complexity increases the further you get away from the area around Svartifoss.
  • The recommended route can also be shortened. For example, you can do the route to Svartifoss with or without the detour to Sel. This would make a distance between 4-6 km depending on which paths are chosen.
  • Another interesting route is the 3.5km S1 to Skaftafellsjökull. It starts from “Viewpoint Sjónarnípa Trail” to the viewpoint “Skaftafellsjökull gönguleið”. The trail takes less altitude, so it has less views, but this trail takes you to see the glacier lagoon up close.

Svínafellsjökull ♦️

Svínafellsjökull is another glacier tongue and lagoon of melting ice and icebergs.

ℹ️ Useful information
🅿️ free
🚗 7min from Skaftafell Parking
⏳ 1h

🎥 If you have seen Interstellar (2014), this landscape will remind you of some scenes from the movie. If not, on your return from your trip, don’t hesitate to watch it.

💡 Tips:

  • You will be able to walk up to the glacier, but it is forbidden to walk over the glacier without proper equipment. Although there is no one to control and you will be able to pass, but be careful ! The ground is very tricky. It looks like you are on land, but it is actually ice. In addition, it is melting on the outside, so the ground is slippery, and also inside the glacier, creating “crevasses” (deep cracks in the ice).
  • If you want to go on a glacier tour, they can be booked in advance, although I would recommend doing it on the Jökulsárlón.
    💻 Troll Expeditions (with an office right there) ; Arctic Adventures


Múlagljúfur Canyon ⭐️️

The Múlagljúfur canyon is breathtaking. The look is lost in the distance and everything is beautiful. You can see all the plain while the mountains are getting closer and closer, with intense green colors and you can even reach the snow, and the deep canyon with several waterfalls on both sides.

In addition, in the months of September and October, everything is tinged with reddish colors because of the heathers. These small plants cover the ground with yellows, oranges, reds and maroons, giving another magic to this place.

ℹ️ Useful information
🅿️ free
🚗 41min from Svínafellsjökull parking
⏳ 2h -> The route is about 5km and 1h20 of walking. In addition, the parking is quite far from the canyon, there are many ups and downs, and areas with quite steep slopes, so you walk a little slower.

💡 Tips: The route can be extended further, up to a cliff that can be seen from above the canyon. In our case, the area was snowy and it was getting dark. So we could have made it, but the return would have been without light and it seemed too risky. Therefore, calculate well your route of the day and the sunset, so you can see it in all its splendor.

Fjallsárlón ♦️

Fjallsárlón is the lagoon of the Fjallsjökull glacier. This time you can see the whole white glacier in front and how it is decreasing in size as it approaches. In addition, the lagoon has many more icebergs, which makes it more impressive.

ℹ️ Useful information
🅿️ free
🚗 15min from Múlagljúfur Canyon
⏳ 30min

💡 Tips: This may be one of the last stops of the day, so enjoy it. In our case, we were with the sunset and the clouds dissipated a bit, which made everything look super bright due to the amount of white from the ice.

What else to see?

The recommendations for Day 4 end up visiting Fjallsárlón, but if you want to add more activities on this day, you can see the first stops of the itinerary on Day 5, such as Diamond Beach and Jokulsarlon.

A stop can be made to see the Hof Church, Hofskirka. It looks like something out of a fairy tale and follows the typical Icelandic tradition, made of wood and with a grass roof.
💡 Tips: In our case, we stopped to see it 5min because it was on our way, but there is not much more to see.

Where to eat?

As discussed in the previous days, we recommended a hearty breakfast, a picnic lunch and an early and hearty dinner.

This day we ended up having dinner at the restaurant of the hotel where we were staying, Hali Country Hotel & Restaurant.

  • Vegetable soup
  • Schnitzel -> 💡 Tips: Used to the big sizes, we were a bit surprised at the 2 little portions they put out for us. So I wouldn’t recommend this dish if you go with that idea.

Total 7.550 ISK (≈ 53€) for 2 people.
💡 Tips: it is a standard price in Iceland.

Where to sleep?

The recommendation would be to sleep as close to Jökulsárlón as possible.
In our case, the accommodation where we stayed was in Hali, Hali Country Hotel & Restaurant. It is 23min from Fjallsárlón (last stop on Day 4) and 13min from Jökulsárlón (first stop on Day 5).
In addition, the hotel had a restaurant that allows you to have breakfast, lunch and dinner. So you don’t have to worry about anything.

Keep discovering everything about Iceland:

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