Snæfellsjökull National Park & Hellnar

Day 2 Iceland Road Trip

Geo Cliffs

The next morning after breakfast at the hotel, we quickly jumped in the car with all our luggage, and headed to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. On the way, we stopped at the Geo Cliffs (which were cool to see, but no need to linger here). We also found a stop on the side of the road to see horses up close! Love those pictures. These horses have long manes and show off their teeth more than I’ve ever seen. They are beautiful creatures. We also saw so many sheep. Come to find out there’s more sheep than humans on Iceland!

Búðakirkja

We also made a short stop in front of a waterfall on the side of the road, and of a small scenic black church in Búðir, called Búðakirkja, originally built in 1848. The church is still used to this day, for church events with the local parish and for destination weddings (what a spot!). After taking pictures of this beautifully quaint church, we started to get hungry for lunch. So we stopped in a small town called Arnarstapi at a food truck highly rated on google, called Frista. We both ordered the fish and chips with sweet potato fries and the remoulade (sauce made of mustard and other spices and spreads). We both thought it was pretty good but not the best fish and chips we’ve ever had. I wonder what their quesadilla would’ve tasted like.

Snæfellsjökull National Park

We next went to the Snæfellsjökull National Park visitors center on the peninsula. We quickly learned that in the national parks here, what you bring in you must bring back out with you; so we weren’t able to toss our own trash into the park's rubbish bins. This got us into a conversation with the park ranger who recommended we do the hike to the rocks behind the lighthouse, saying it’s one of the best things to do. It made for a fantastic picture, reminding me of some scenes in Game of Thrones. The hike was pretty easy but a little difficult to follow. Using the All Trails app worked great for this.

We then took a quick pit stop at the black sand beach, Djúpalónssandur Beach. It is so strange to see black sand for the first time! Next we hiked to the top of the Saxhóll Crater. It was short but very steep, nothing too spectacular. Then we went to both of the lighthouses recommended by the park person, Öndverðarnesviti, and Svörtuloft Lighthouse. We heavily searched for puffins but came out empty handed.

Where to Stay

Fosshotel Hellnar

We drove back to the cute town Arnarstapi and went to Stapinn for dinner. I got a really good vegetable soup and Rachel got a burger. Our hotel, Fosshotel Hellnar, was in a nearby town on a hill near the cliffs. The room was small with two twin beds (come to find out all the rest of the hotels have twin beds) and a really cool bathroom that when you turn it on it heats the floor! Rachel and I made plans for our next day together and around 11pm in the hotel lobby, an older couple walked in the front doors of the hotel. I asked “did you all see the northern lights?” They said they saw them but they were very dim. Rachel and I were too tired to go out and hoped to see them brighter later on in the trip (we were right!).