LangeTime Adventures

Iceland’s Southern Coast

If you’ve got the time to spare, an excellent way to see more of Iceland is along its southern coast. From epic glaciers to black beaches, you will truly get an appreciation of the majesty of this country by including the southern coast into your itinerary. For this, I would recommend renting a car.

The wild wonders of
Southern Iceland

The Waterfalls

This is not by any means an exhaustive list, but these are some of the waterfalls you must see when enjoying the sights of southern Iceland. Iceland is covered in waterfalls large and small. They are everywhere and delightful to spot as you drive around.

Skógafoss

This is a very wide waterfall that drops almost 200 feet from the top of the falls. A bit treacherous in wintertime, there was ice all over from the mist of the falls. Just off the highway, this is an easy, worthwhile stop.

Seljalandsfoss

Ok confession time. We never actually stopped at Seljalandsfoss. We drove past it three times and just never felt like stopping by – definitely a bad call. So, here’s two photos of the falls in summertime from Wikipedia to make up for our lacking – you can actually get behind this waterfall!

By Ajay Suresh
By Diego Delso

Kvernufoss

Well, Kvernufoss isn’t exactly a staple waterfall hike, because it is off the beaten path. This is why I find it all the more spectacular to see. Just down the road from its much more famous neighbor, Skógafoss, this fall will require a short hike (about a mile total) but will reward you with a powerful rush of water in a rocky alcove. We were the only ones at the fall the morning we hiked there! You can even go around the fall to stand behind it, but you’re bound to get wet and we decided against it since it was winter. This one falls about 100 ft.

Glaciers

Iceland was formed by glaciers and volcanoes. But on maps of the island, you will see four distinct blobs which indicate their massive ice caps, where 269 of its named glaciers stem from.

We were fortunate enough to experience three of the four up close!

Sólheimajökull

If you’re going to Iceland before 2025, this is a must stop. Scientists predict this part of the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap will be fully gone by then. BUT, right now it’s a wonderful place for a glacier hike and, if you’re a bit adventurous, ice climbing! If exploring the glacier, definitely take a guided tour – glacier hiking is dangerous and you need equipment to traverse it safely! We also found all guide companies were similarly priced.

Notice the climber on the left as the sun sets

The Sólheimajökull Glacier Hike with Ice Climbing
remains our favorite activity from our honeymoon!

The turqoise is only visible in winter, there’s too much ash in the summer dirtying it up!
Alex scaling an ice wall
Our Scottish guide showing us the moulin of the glacier – where water makes an escape hatch.

Vatnajökull

The largest ice cap in Iceland, this massive amount of ice covers 8% of Iceland. Just driving past this monster was immense and impressive. Glaciers kept poking out of the geology.
We ended up driving a very holey road to check out one glacier of it closer up – Hoffelsjökull.

Langjökull

This could maybe qualify more as Reykjavik/Golden Circle area, but it fits nicely in with the other glaciers. We not only snorkeled in the run-off from this glacier, we snowmobiled on top of it!

This was actually our first time ever snowmobiling, and it was a really great time! We took a tricked-out van (they’re called Superjeeps) up a very bumpy and snowy road to a hut where we got our sweet gear and finally set off on our snowmobiles. Our destination: an ice cave!

This ice cave was formed naturally from the glacier melting and creating moulins where the water dug an escape. If we had come in summer, there would be no way we could go in as the place would be completely filled with water!

The height of the ice cave was 4-5 feet most of the time
Like the rings of a tree, you can learn about a glacier’s past from layers of silt in the ice
That would be Alex’s butt exploring one of the water entry points

Notable Towns along the Southern Coast

Town of Vik

This town is truly adorable. It’s close to more black sand beaches, a beautiful drive close to Reynisfjara Beach, and home to an Icelandic wool shop! Icewear was a fun store to shop for souvenirs in and to check out traditional Icelandic wool sweaters. I actually found one of those sweaters for a steal at a flea market in Reykjavik!

Höfn

We enjoyed a brief visit to Höfn after our hike to Hoffelsjökull. A small fishing town, I immensely enjoyed some lobster pasta fresh from the fishermen, surrounded by fjords and ocean. It’s the starting point for the eastern fjords of Iceland. We, unfortunately, had to turn around before we could explore more!

Icelandic-style sweater
Lobster pasta

Other Southern Coast Highlights

Kirkjufjara Beach

This was our first stop after a good night’s rest. This was an excellent visit because you can see the black sand beaches of Reynisfjara Beach to the left, and it gave us a great view of the holed wall of Dyrhólaey to the right. Then, just up the road, you can see Dyrhólaey from another angle at the Dyrhólaey lighthouse overlook. That’s a steep, curvy road, though, so be prepared vehicle-wise.

Black and white – sand and surf
Pounding surf and natural arches
View from Dyrhólaey lighthouse overlook.
Dyrhólaey Peninsula from Dyrhólaey Lighthouse overlook

Reynisfjara Beach

A black sand beach within reach! Positively covered in basalt columns from volcanic rock, the beach was very accessible – so accessible you must mind the busloads of tourists crawling all over. Just keep walking away from them – those groups never make it much farther than the beginning of the beach.

Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon

No I can’t pronounce this. But, you may recognize this canyon as a place the dragons flew through in Season Eight of Game of Thrones. We were very grateful for our shoe spikes because the ridiculously slippery hike up a short, steep hill. But, the overlook offered some lovely views of the mossy canyon!

Diamond Beach/Glacier Lagoon

This is a place where large chunks of glacier come to melt. Swept to the ocean from the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, these crystal-clear beauties are brought in with the tide and are a wonder to behold at sunrise or sunset, when they glow from the rays!

Sólheimasandur Plane Wreck

We were too short on time to actually see this plane wreck, but just down the highway from Skógafoss , there is a plane wreck on a beach that you can actually climb all around and check out. Make sure you’ve got enough time, though, because it’s 2.5 miles from the parking to the plane wreck, then of course 2.5 back. I felt pretty alright skipping it.

Grand Canyon in a Day

Seeing one of America’s Treasures in under 8 hours

Why so short?

Alex and I decided to visit my cousin and her husband in Phoenix, so we only wanted a day trip to the Canyon in order to spend as much time with them as possible. Phoenix is 3.5 hours away from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, so we had little time to spare!

But, it’s worth it. As I drove us in and caught my first glance of the sheer majesty of the Grand Canyon, I literally gasped it was so impressive!

How to Decided What To Do

No matter what, you can’t go to the Grand Canyon without going “below the rim”. From Arizona, you will be on the “South Rim” of the Canyon, and from there you have a few options.

We opted for a piece of the South Kaibab Trail. We turned around at “Ooh Aah Point,” which ended up being about two miles round trip. A note: hiking here is tricky because it’s easier to go down than up. If you plan this hike, gauge how much uphill you’re willing to tackle. Luckily for our mile-high lungs, the uphill was pretty easy! BUT, there were a lot of people struggling up the hill.

Here’s some pictures along the way with us at the lowest point:

That reminds me, when visiting the Canyon make sure you always have water! This desert heat was unforgiving (even in early May) and we were grateful for our water pouches. The Visitor’s Center has some available if needed.

Also bring snacks, because obviously snacks make everything better. We bought Subway on our way to the Grand Canyon and ate it at the edge of a cliff! Hard to beat that.

Where To Next?

Okay, you’ve made it below the rim and successfully back up. Now what? Luckily, South Rim Grand Canyon has a series of buses that cart tourists between locations. Some of these locations are also linked by hiking trails, so we did a mixture of both. The bus routes run in one circular direction and the three colors are linked – Orange to Blue, Blue to Red.

So, we took Orange bus from South Kaibab Trailhead to Yaki Point – really worth a quick stop to enjoy another staggering view of the canyon.

Then we took the Orange route to the Visitor’s Center. There we checked out the history and geology of the Canyon and stopped by the really crowded overlook there. I was particularly surprised by the number of foreign languages I heard, this is really one of the main stops for a lot of tourists to America, even if it’s in the middle of nowhere!

After that, it was the Blue bus to the Red bus to catch some different views of the Canyon. The Red bus was super crowded, so we hopped out at Hopi Point and hiked to Mohave Point. Here, we were finally able to see the Colorado River – that winding beast that actually carved the place.

We wish we could’ve stayed until sunset, but we wanted to be back in Phoenix by nightfall and had to hit the road!

Do you have any plans to see the Grand Canyon? What would you recommend if you were there for longer?

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Glacier National Park

A journey through the wake of glaciers

Glacier National Park was established in 1910 and truly was one of America’s best ideas. Between gorgeous turquoise lakes, an abundance of waterfalls, and the most epic road through the park, it is truly a natural wonder of America.

When the park was established in 1910, there were over one hundred glaciers there. Today there are only twenty-six that can still qualify as active glaciers. But, though the moving ice has receded, what it has left behind will leave you breathless.

We took these photos from the stunning Going-To-The-Sun Road – the only road that cuts through the park, by cutting into the mountainside. These areas used to be completely filled with glaciers (thousands of years ago). But when they receded the wake they left was phenomenally beautiful. We loved the views from the Sun Road so much, we drove it twice so my husband and I could take turns gawking.

How to spend your time in Glacier

With over 700 miles of trail, and a large chunk of the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), there are so many options to consider when planning hikes.

For me, I was recovering from a recently-sprained ankle and decided to limit myself to two hikes – Grinnell Glacier (~7 miles out and back) and St Mary Falls with Victoria Falls (~4 miles out and back) and I really recommend both – they are classic Glacier NP hikes.

Grinnell Glacier is located in the Many Glacier portion of the park (one of the four valleys) and we got there at 7am and really recommend early arrivals — leaving at 11:30 they were no longer letting cars in and the line of cars streamed at least a mile! Our hike to Grinnell Glacier was stopped at Grinnell Lake due to snowpack preventing much more progress. We went 4th of July weekend, so there was still a lot of closures due to snow. But, the lake was beautiful and seeing it from the top was truly awesome.

Our second day in the park, we explored St Mary Valley by hiking to St Mary and Victoria Falls. St Mary Falls trailhead has, like, 10 parking spots. We got in at 8 AM and there was only one spot empty. Really recommend you come early if you want to do this hike.

And why wouldn’t you want to? Check out both St Mary Falls – a powerful rush of teal water – and Victoria Falls, where you can literally stand in the spray of its water.

Both falls were well worth the short hike to see them. This was all the hiking my ankle would allow us to do, but I’ve heard fantastic things about Hidden Lake and here’s someone else’s (AllTrails.com) picture to convince you:

As far as how to spend your time in Glacier National Park, I really recommend our itinerary and for Goodness’ sake, don’t be afraid to wake up early! The infrastructure of the park really is not meant to handle the huge uptick in visitors these past few years, so parking is a nightmare.

Do you have to drive in the park?

Technically, no. The park provides a shuttle service, but there’s always way more demand than what the vans can provide and wait times can be up to an hour. There are also Red Bus tours available that work much like the shuttles and are open-topped for panoramic views.

I really recommend driving since you get freedom over where to go and where to get out along the Sun Road. JUST KNOW that if you drive your own car, parking will be crazy after 8 AM and you may not be able to access all the trailheads and ranger stations. For us this wasn’t an issue, but for some it totally could be.

Other things to do?

Ok, you’ve seen the gorgeous waterfalls, the epic landscapes, how else can you spend time in this fantastic place?

Canoeing/Kayaking

There’s a company called Glacier Park Boat Co. that will rent out rowboats, kayaks, and canoes at Lake McDonald, Many Glacier, and Two Medicine. Also available at those lakes and St Mary Lake are boat tours. We opted for a canoe and boat tour of Two Medicine Lake and would highly recommend both! Here’s one of the Two Medicine lakes from above:

Ranger-led activities

You can visit the NPS website to see which activities are available, in which of the four valleys. Our host recommended the Native American Speaks events and (if the sky is clear) star gazing with a Park Ranger and their telescope!

That’s all the tips I have for now, but comment below if you have any questions! Enjoy your trip to Glacier National Park – it will be so worth it!