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Campervan Adventures in Iceland: Day 23 - Goðafoss, Grjótagjá, Dettifoss

Day 23 was a very overcast day. Our plan had been to hike to Aldeyjarfoss from the end of the gravel road (where it turns into an F road), but with it being overcast and low clouds I wasn't sure I wanted to. We decided to drive over and see what the weather was like once we got there. After the super long day hiking to Haifoss I didn't want to have another long, cold, not so nice day here.

Goðafoss was right past the gravel road we would have to turn down to get to Aldeyjarfoss so we decided to go there first and see what we felt like afterward. 




Goðafoss was a nice area, but after everything we had seen a bit unimpressive to us! I have seen photos where the water is a beautiful blue, but it was dirty water grey while we were there...





There are two parking lots, one on either side of the falls, so we parked at one then walked over to the other side to spy





On the one side you could walk down to the water and closer to the falls











After wandering around we decided to head on to Mývatn and see what the weather was like there, saving Aldeyjarfoss for hopefully a better weather day. It was still so foggy in the mountains we wanted to be able to see all the things if we did a long day hike

Viewpoint on the lake where we talked about what we wanted to do to fill our day. When planning I had scheduled 2-3 days for weather days in case we got caught in bad wind or storms and couldn't/didn't want to venture out. Only we had amazing weather we didn't use any of them and we were nearing the end of our trip. The forecast was today and the next 2 days would be cloudy/rainy and then sunny and gorgeous for the rest of our time. 




So we decided to just spy on a few things and have an early day. Spread out our stops in this area to three days instead of two and hopefully the following day would be nice enough for our Aldeyjarfoss hike. 

First stop in Mývatn was Grjótagjá - a small cave with a hot spring too hot to swim in. This was also a filming location for Game of Thrones!







And wandered around right outside the cave




Then we continued on our way to Dettifoss stopping at this viewpoint along the way!




When we got to Dettifoss west (the paved road - the other one was still closed) it was a little rainy so we bundled up and headed off


The area was so cool to walk through! You have to go at least a km to the falls walking through these lava fields. 

And then you get to the falls. I think in summer you can walk down to where the snow is below the rainbow, but since the snow was still there it was still closed off

So much mist from the falls even when it was not raining you would get soaked!









After spying there we headed upstream to see Selfoss 






To get to the falls you had to wander through this cool rocky area, hopping over puddles 









We only went so far as it got a bit sketchy after that




After that we headed back to the car and back to Mývatn to see what the weather was like there. 

It was raining pretty hard when we got there so we just decided to go to camp and have a relaxing afternoon. We ended up camping at Hlíð ferðaþjónusta as Camping Myvatn was closed and the other campsite on the lake was...a gravel parking lot with not many facilities and not very nice. Hlíð ferðaþjónusta was pretty nice! You can camp up on the hill, like we did, and see out over the lava flow and the lake! Perfect spot to spend a rainy afternoon. 

This is a horrible photo, but that hill those cars are parked on? It is pretty steep, even though it doesn't look it. Campers kept coming to try and park on the hill for some reason, then would try and use the leveling things for their tires to get their camper level, but the hill is WAY too steep for that so it was a lot of fun watching them try. These two stuck it out though while everyone else gave up eventually. It was just so many people thought it would work when the hill is so steep! 

An early day since it was overcast/rainy, but we still walked 12km total

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