The greatness of Mother Earth-Myvatn and around.

View of southern Myvatn, with islands boosting pseudocraters in it.

The Myvatn area is nothing less than a must when travelling this country. It is an area offering hot springs, geothermal vents. There are craters, lava flows and myriads of small and big formations. The area is a paradise for birds, and the lake is teeming with fish. And in sharp contrast to the rough lava-are the wildflowers, green pastureland and even some forest.

The lake is a fairly new one, it is the child of a volcanic eruption taking place 2300 years ago and flowed trough the whole valley-all the way down to the coast some 50 kilometers away. It is a shallow lake-only around 4 meters at the deepest point. The average is only 2,5 meters. The lake is fertile ground for a wide variety of insects-which in turn support a rich birdlife. Sadly-mosquitos and flies are among those. The name Myvatn tells about it. It means Mosquito lake.

Myvatn by night. A spectacular beauty and a magical atmosphere making it impossible to go to sleep.

It is an area with a tough climate, it really is worth sacrificing to the weather gods in advance. If they listen to you, and keep the wind low and the skies clear, you are in for a treat in the form of colours, shapes-and atmosphere. I was as lucky as one can be during my days-an nights-there. Evening and nighttime is in a way the finest time during the period with 24/7 daylight and should not be thrown away. As a result-i didn't get enough of my beauty sleep.

I arrived from the coast in the evening. Put up my tent at the camping just below the tiny-and lightly used-airport of Reykjahlid-a small village of 300 souls. The nearest neighbour being a 300 year old lavaflow. At its edge there is a church that barely survived the eruption-considered a miracle back then. Then after a quick meal headed out to check out the shores of Myvatn. There is a road going around the whole lake, and a perfect drivingtrip for a long night. Stops are many, and speed should be low.

I have reached the top of the Hverfjall crater. A perfect ring of tephra with a cone in the middle. It is loose material, so there are established two paths to the top, they are connected via a path circling the rim of Hverfjall. It is close to Dimmur borgir, and combining those two is the way to go. But bring water!! Closer to the village there is vegetation, but as you approach Hverfjall it becomes a black tephradessert where almost nothing grows, and no water can be found.

An oasis on the black plain.

A tiny green island in the middle of  the vast, infertile blackness.

Looking trough a gate of lavarock in Dimmurborgir-meaning Dark fortress, named so because in parts it can remind of a castleruin. In reality it is a collapsed lavatube. The hollow lavapillars were formed by steam pressing itself up trough the lava. Later the top crust covering the up to ten meter deep lavaflow collapsed, but the pillars remained after the lava had drained away.

Full moon at Dimmurborgir. It is 2300 hours, and i have the place all to myself. It is total silence and some of the silhouettes looks like they are moving a bit....maybe the trolls are coming out....During the day it is a circus. There are several trails in Dimmurborgir, and they are all full of visitors. Some of them way too noisy. 

Angry mudpool at the Hverir geothermal field.

Golden sunset and black volcano cone.

Stora Viti (Viti means hell) explosion crater. Its colour constantly changing as the sun moves.

View from Stora Viti towards the Leirhnjukur area. It is a lavaflow from a 1984 eruption and the area is still very much alive with fumaroles, and springs. But it is a dangerous area. In many places the surface crust is so thin one risk falling trough-to boiling conditions. The area is formally closed off-but lot of people-I was one of them-still go. The place is great, but there is personal risk to it.

Fried ground at Leirhnjukur, part of the Kraflacaldera. The person on the picture had no idea what he was doing, he went all the way up to the mustard coloured ground 2 centimeters above his head. That kind of colour is a sharp warning sign in a place where things are going on just below the surface. It is an area of colours-black lava with stripes of white snow. White steam rising towards a blue sky. Brownish, yellowish and whitish shades around the fumaroles (gas vents). A few pools reflecting the colours of their surroundings. And even tiny specks of flowers.

Leirhnjukur

Hissing ground.

The pseudocraters at Skutustadir at the southern part of the lake. They offer a nice half hour hike. Pseudocraters are sort of fake craters-no lava ever emerged from them. They are formed by steam explosions, the steam formed by lava passing over moist ground. Some of the tiny craters are formed by volcanic bombs-glowing rocks flying trough the air-which buried themselves into moist ground when they landed.

Cowshed Cafe, a place neighbouring a cowshed.

Grjotagja a small cave near Reykjahlid. It is filled with warm water. For decades it was a fave bathing spot, But for several years, the water has been to hot for that. However, it was cool enough to allow a footbath when I visited.