Recently, I returned from my wonderful 12 days trip to Iceland in Winter. It was a great experience, lots of great photos!
In this country, the winter can be very harsh and I was happy to drive a SUV with spikes on the tires. Iceland showed me everything, from beautiful weather with blue skies to crazy northern lights in the nights to storms with snow and hales and sometimes very bad road conditions after snow storms.
I would always again visit Iceland during winter. The landscapes covered with snow are amazing. Hope you like the photos. Visit my Iceland Gallery.
On my first day, I took my rental car and made my way up to the Snaefellsness peninsula where I had my guesthouse in Grundarfjördur where I spent the next two days. My objective was to capture a great image of the famous mountain Kirkjufell. This sunset, I walked up to the Kirkjufell falls and took my place among the other photographers. I also met a guy from the US that I met twice by accident and once planned during my trip. Funny, I saw many people twice on this trip. After capturing a beautiful sunset, I also hoped for a good sunrise. Unfortunately, it was raining a lot the following day. So, I explored the peninsula and hoped for better weather at sunset, not successfully. The other day, I had a great sunrise again on Kirkjufell, this time with much more snow on the mountain than the day before.
Being happy, I made my way up to the Northern part of Iceland and checked in in the only hotel close to the famous Hrvitserkur rock, where I've spent one day. At this time it was stormy and raining. So, I was not sure whether I will experience a great sunset. Some hours later, I visited Hrvitserkur beach and set up for my shooting. The sky cleared up and I had a great sunset. Again happy, I went back to the hotel for dinner. When it was dark, I saw Northern Lights. Despite being tired, I rushed again to the beach, climbed down the rocks and captured one of my most beautiful Northern Lights. When the spectacle was over, some other groups came to the beach for taking pictures.
The next three days, I spend the nights close to Godafoss which was my next target. Also there, I was able to catch a beautiful sunset. I also booked a super jeep and a driver to get to the waterfalls Aldeyjarfoss and Selfoss. Those waterfalls are only accessible by super jeeps in winter times. Unfortunately, the weather was not as I hoped. But still, it was great to be there. The waterfalls are impressive! Due to sometimes bad weather I relaxed in a hot spring close to Myvatn lake where I also met the US guy the third time. There we agreed to go on an ice cave tour some days later in the South of Iceland.
I now wanted to drive to the South of Iceland. After driving two hours, I had to notice that the mountain road leading to the South was closed. So I had to decide, whether I should stay there and hope that the road will open again or, and I decided that, that I drive 8-9 hours back to Iceland in order to drive to the Southwest of Iceland through the South. It was a long drive. But I was happy I did that. Because the road stayed closed for next days. The next day I captured beautiful pictures of Oxararfoss during sunrise. Then I went to Jökulsarlon lagoon where I checked into my guesthouse. From there, I captured beautiful photos of Jökulsarlon lagoon. The other day, I went on the Ice Cave tour that I booked some days ago. We had to hike to the cave, approximately an hour and were alone there. I was able to take some great photos. Afterwards we went back and I tried again to capture Jökulsarlon for sunset.
The other day, I checked in in Höfn, for great pictures of Vestrahorn. Vestrahorn is a famous mountain and you have a spectacular view to the mountain from Stossknes. So I set up there for sunset. It was very stormy at that evening and the black sand on the beach was flying in my face. So I had to cover my face. But it was worth it. The sunset was spectacular and being happy, I went for dinner. The sunrise the other day was not spectacular. So I made my way back to the village Vik where I wanted to take photos of Vik beach and Dyrholaey coast. Unfortunately, the rocks on the Dyrholaey lighthouse are not accessible anymore. So, it is not possible anymore to capture spectacular views of the coast with the lighthouse in the picture. So I went to the other side of Dyrholaey where I captured a beautiful image of the coast in direction to Vik.
Afterwards I've spend one night at Skogafoss to capture Skogafoss, Seljalandsfoss and the famous plane wrack in the proximity. The plane is accessible by hiking for two hours only. Unfortunately, the sunset was not spectacular. So I captured some good pictures of Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss. Then I went back to Keflavik, where I had to catch my flight back home the other day. It was the stormiest day ever and I wondered whether my flight is going the next day. But fortunately, I was able to leave the country as planned.
