The water fall is approximately 200ft high and is unique in that there's a trail you can walk that goes behind the waterfall which offered some cool views.
After the short hike around the falls we got back in the car and made are way to the base camp for snowmobiling. At the base camp we got all geared up: full jumpsuit, gloves, wool socks, hat, and helmet then got into a van with large off-roading wheels. The van took us on a 30 minute ride up to the Mýrdalsjökull glacier.
After a brief explanation and safety briefing we got on our snowmobiles and followed our guide, Thor (Icelandic people have cool names), up the mountain. Luckily I was first in line behind our guide so I didn't have to worry about anyone going slow in front of me or getting in the way. The snowmobiles themselves were awesome! I was able to get up to around 77 km/hr (just under 50 mph). After about 40 min we stopped at the top of the glacier and Thor gave us an explanation of the glacier itself. It turns out the glacier is sitting on top of a massive volcano which is 50 years past due in its eruption! There is another smaller volcano (Eyjafjallajökull) on the glacier that erupted in 2010 and caused lots of airplanes to land and airports to shut down because of the huge ash clouds. We rode the snowmobiles back to the starting point and on the way back (near the end) two of the other people in our group had flipped their snowmobiles on the side due to the angle of the hill, luckily no one was hurt! We then parked all the snowmobiles and took the van back to base camp. If I ever move somewhere colder I'm definitely trading my motorcycle for a snowmobile, they're so much fun!
We were back on the road around 12 and made our way to Skogafoss waterfall. Skogafoss was a fairly large waterfall, one of the largest in Iceland at 82 ft wide and 200 feet high. There was a cool trail you could hike up to the top of the falls and have great views of the waterfall and of the river that fed it.
After the waterfall we went further east down the coast to Dyrhólaey was originally an island but became apart of the mainland after some volcanic eruptions. The cools things we saw at Dyrhólaey were the gigantic arch made of (hardened) lava, the black sand on the beach and the numerous little caves.
After Dyrhólaey we went a few miles farther east to another beach, Renusfajara beach. This beach also had black sand and caves, but what was unique about this beach was that it had large columnar basalt lava formations. These are basically squarish shapes rocks jutting up from the ground like columns. They looked incredible and were also very easy to climb.
Next we finally made our way to the coastal town of Vik and checked into our hostel. Vik is a very small ( less than 300 residents) But also very beautiful town. After checking in we decided to vist the the local swimming pool. Swimming pools in Iceland are a big thing. They're a little different than the U.S. In that they are geothermal my heated so even though they're outside the pool is kept at a nice 85 degrees F. There was also a hot tub which was nice after a long day of hiking.
After the pool we went to dinner, I had a steak sandwhich, which as usual was kinda pricey. We then made our way down to the local black sand beach at Vik and hung out there for a little. The views on the coast are just spectacular. When we returned to the hostel I was finally able to FaceTime with Rachel, which it was feat to she her and Chauncey, I miss them both a ton! Tomorrow we are going to Skaftafell national park for some more hiking!
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