Life in Colorado: May 2013

Friday, May 31, 2013

Post

This is my 14th post for my trip to Scotland and Iceland. So if you haven’t been to the blog in a while and want to read about this adventure in chronological order, I suggest clicking on the May 2013 archive on the right, start at the post called “The Crossing”, and go up.

Tuesday, May the 14th, was the day I went back home. Scotland and Iceland were an amazing experience. It was good to be out of boring old Colorado and see something new;) Fortunately, I had some time to kill before my flight. So I went on another drive. I went back to Þingvellir National Park. I made a stop at Almannagjá in the park. Almannagjá is a part of the rift valley where tectonic plates move apart.

Þingvallavatn (The largest natural lake in Iceland) Þingvellir National Park

Þingvellir National Park

Almannagjá - Þingvellir National Park

Þingvellir

From Þingvellir National Park, I headed south through Selfoss to the coast. Once at the coast, I followed it almost all the way to the airport. It was one lava field after another pretty much all the way.

Me just north of Selfoss

On a strip of land separating the Ölfusá River from the Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean on the other side of the road.

Lighthouse at Þorlákshöfn

Lava rock

Lava field along the coast

The flight back was long and uneventful. I watched a couple of movies, read, and looked out the window. It was cloudy over Greenland, but northern Canada was interesting with all of the ice and snow.

Canada, eh!

Zoom view

Hudson Bay?

After 14 posts, that is it for Scotland and Iceland trip. Would I go back again? Sure. Will I? Who knows…

Thursday, May 30, 2013

In The Evening

The daylight hours in Iceland are quite long in May. The Sun stays low on horizon for quite a while in the evening. This makes for wonderful photography opportunities. I started the evening of May the 13th, by driving to the town of Vik. I needed gas, and Vik seemed like it would make a good turn around point. On the way back to my hotel I made a bunch of stops to take photos. One of my stops was going to be at the peninsula called Dyrhólaey. It has a lighthouse. The coast also has great rock formations including an arch. Unfortunately, I was able to drive all the way to the point. The area had closed at 7PM. From what I could see it looked cooled. I’ll have to come back on my next trip to Iceland. My partial drive out to Dyrhólaey did give me a good view of Katla. Katla is a volcano that is due to erupt and cause problems like Eyjafjallajökull did in 2010.

Katla

Sólheimajökull Glacier

Hwy 1, my ride, and the volcano Eyjafjallajökull

I had stopped at a viewpoint for Eyjafjallajökull in the afternoon. The lighting was more interesting on trip back. So I stopped again.

Eyjafjallajökull

I had spotted the Westman Islands the day before from the plane. I had also picked out the islands earlier in the day. There are some iconic photos and video taken of a volcano erupting on the island of Heimaey during the 70’s. I found a road that was newer than my map going to a harbor called Landeyjahöfn. The harbor was built in 2010. It looked like a good opportunity to check out the coast. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to take a ferry to the Westman Islands. Maybe next time. The pictures I got along the coast next to the harbor were pretty though.

Waves

The coast

Westman Islands

Black Sand Beach

Westman Islands

The Coast

Westman Islands from Hwy 1

After my stop on the coast, I drove for a little while. When the Sun was finally setting, I had to find a good place to stop. I found a paved road that led me off the highway. It took me to Hellisheiði Power Station which is the largest geothermal power station in the world. The view of what was left of the sunset was outstanding. It was after 10:30 PM at this point. I had the place to myself.