We slept in a little bit (but not enough) after our late night with the puffins. Then we left to drive up to Isafjordur, our home for the next three days in the Westfjords. We did, however, decide on three stops on the way though.
The first stop involved a very rugged drive over the mountains to Raudisandar Beach. This was a strange experience! Every beach we’ve seen in Iceland has been a black sand beach as the country is quite volcanic. Raudisandar is a yellow/cream sand beach. Astonishingly, I read that the color is created because the sand is made up of an enormous amount of finely crushed shells (just pulverized over the millennia by water and weather.) We were excited to see this and looked forward to experiencing the reality of this famously long and beautiful beach. That was not what we discovered, to say the least…
I think you need to get to Raudisandar at high tide if you want that experience. We, unknowingly, went at low tide. The sea floor is incredibly flat and the day was very foggy so we could not even see the water line; not from the shore and not even before we left after we had walked hundreds of feet out! We assumed there was a sea out there somewhere, but we hadn’t seen it.
Additionally, the yellow sand was only a fraction of a centimeter thick. When you walked on it, even the weight of your body and footprint revealed black sand directly underneath the surface. The texture of the sand was also a not at all pleasant squelching mush. It was not fun to walk on and caked our feet/shoes with a mud-like texture. We really wanted to walk out far enough to find the ocean, so at some point we walked over to the rocks on the side of the beach area and walked on those instead. As I said, though, even with that we did not find the sea before we left.
We did, however, find…BEACH SHEEP! Literally. We found dozens of sheep, on the sand, well into the area that would be covered in water when the tide came in. Go figure! Anyway, it wasn’t what we hoped for and wasn’t why we stopped there, but it definitely was an interesting experience! (And there was another cool black church nearby.)
We then went to Thingmanna Waterfall. This was a wonderful “smaller” falls that had several levels and lots of rocks in and around the top level, giving Naomi and especially Ezra the chance to run, jump, and play on them!
After Thingmanna, we went someplace that left me in awe (my now 5th religious experience in Iceland)…Dynjandi Waterfall! The hike up to Dynjandi included about 7 other waterfalls that cascade down from Dynjandi, but are separate from it. They begin fairly immediately after the parking lot and add additional fun on the way up.
Once we got to the top though…wow! It was a densely foggy day. While I would have liked to see Dynjandi in the sunshine, the fog added an incredible sense of mystery and awe. The size and scope of the falls is staggering. The rock is sort of rippled so there is just enough of a tiering affect without being actual tiers. It is absolutely magnificent! On the foggy day, the water seems to come from Heaven or some mystical mountain too impossibly tall to see the top. I would have stayed there for hours!
Upon leaving Dynjandi, we drove to Isafjordur, which will be our Westfjords home for the next 3 days. We went grocery shopping, including a sweet treat (Sun Lollies), and explored our new home. It is fairly small, but up in a forested area with a nice view and, the largest benefit…the kids get to sleep (and create games and worlds) in a loft, only accessible by ladder. Let the fun begin!
July 20, 2025 – Total Steps 13,891 (Some Elevation at the Waterfalls)
