North Iceland: Myvatn

Day 7: Skútustaðagígar was our first stop, a set of craters due to gas explosions, forming mini volcanoes.

The trail travels from one crater to the next, each with different views of Lake Myvatn.

The small hill formations was my favorite part at Skútustaðagígar, especially with the path going up and down.

Up next was Hofdi, a set of unusual lava formations. It's also around Lake Myvatn.

That day was very cloudy, and it was lightly raining.

Afterwards, we went to Dimmuborgir, a lava field with larger scale than Hofdi.

Then, Karim and I hiked to the top of Hverfjall, a volcano crater. The sight of the crater as you reach the top is one of my favorites in Iceland.

Hverfjall is incredibly huge. My brother and I were both speechless upon seeing the immensity.

Visitors can walk all along the crater, which is 1km in diameter. We were tight on time as Mom was preparing lunch down in the motorhome, so we had to climb back down.

Since the crater is 420m high, the view from the top is stunning.

Then we headed to Grjótagjá cave. As we parked, the Hverfjall crater we were just on was still imposing from afar.

Grjótagjá is a cave with unique rock formations, and hot water is flowing through it. Since Game of Thrones has filmed here, it has become a popular attraction, and it became illegal to swim in it.

Climbing to the top of the cave from outside, earth shows some anger with the ground splitting in two.

The following visit was to Hverir, also known as Hverarönd. This is an active geothermal area that reveals how strange and magical our planet can get.

I've seen the strangest colors, patterns, and sounds of bubbles in Hverir.

The strong smell of sulfur makes the area even more particular.

The shades of orange and brown throughout Hverir stood out, even though it was often mud that stuck ferociously to our shoes.

Up in the nearby hills, the ground is also hissing. It's like earth is warning us, but we still want to observe.

Our rich day around the Myvatn area came to an end. We now had a long drive to reach the remotest part of Iceland, the Westfjords.