We had a lot of items marked as possibilities for our last day, especially on the Snaefellsnes Penninsula. We could have spent a minute or two at many many places and crammed a lot in, but that isn’t how we were feeling. When we were in the Westman Islands in South Iceland exploring a small “lava cave,” Naomi had mentioned wanting to explore a “real cave.” I had done my research and found that there was a large lava tube tunnel on Snaefellsnes that offered tours. We decided to focus on that and then relax and experience one last Icelandic pool.
On our way to Vatnshellir Lava Cave, we began to understand why so many visitors to Iceland focus a good bit on Snaefellsnes. Most people privileged enough to visit Iceland are not able to get far from Reykjavik. Snaefellsnes is a good introduction to the rugged and remote beauty of so much of Iceland. While not quite like touring the country, you can see a more wild side without venturing far from Reykjavik.
This was also the first day, and during our last day at that, that we experienced truly terrible weather in Iceland. It was pouring the entire ride and extremely windy, making visibility very bad. It was funny though; once we changed into our gear for the tour, the tour guide walked us into this slightly lower area in the natural rock formations around us, this one near the tunnel door, to give us an informational presentation. Just being a few feet below the general ground level created a total blockage of the wind; we couldn’t feel it at all. The guide explained how cold the cave would be (and it was) and also how it was formed…
The cave is a lava tube/tunnel formed when a massive flow of lava cooled quickly at the surface and hardened while the inside did not, causing it to literally flow out of the inside and leave a hollow “shell.” The part that is mind boggling is how tall the ceilings of the cave are (approx. 100 feet high.) That means there was a 100 foot thick lava flow that cooled in the way I described. Being inside was amazing! We descended to the lower portion of the cave via an installed, very long spiral staircase. The tunnel was vast, the surfaces sharp, and the stalagmites and stalactites unlike anything I have ever seen in limestone caves. Where limestone caves have smooth stalactites and stalagmites from gradual limestone residue buildup, these features in a lava tube are far more clumpy as they are formed by blobs of lava that dropped and hardened on top of other blobs of lava that previously went through the same process. Everything about the time in the tunnel was very interesting and Naomi, the inspiration for us choosing this particular adventure, loved it! There was even a point where the guide instructed all light to be turned off (we had each been given a flashlight) so that we could experience true pitch darkness. It was wild and would have eventually been disorienting as you literally could not even make out your hand inches from your face!
We decided to relax at the large public pool in Reykjavik for our final afternoon. While we had a nice enough time and it was much larger than the Icelandic public pools we had previously experienced, it still paled in comparison to our first experience at the Olafsjordur pool. 🙂 We did see a Free Palestine protest in Reykjavik as we were driving there though!
At last, we were then ready to go to our final Icelandic apartment (minutes from the airport) for our final Icelandic night…well, almost! The volcano on the Reykjanes Penninsula near the airport that began erupting 8 days ago was still sending out bursts of lava (though not as forcefully as over its first few days.) Figuring this might be a truly one in a lifetime experience to witness an active volcano, we decided to investigate how close you could get and how well you could see it (without spending thousands of dollars on the helicopter flyover offers that had now been popping up on my Facebook feed!) We found out that there were a couple of car pulloff areas that were a safe enough distance away, but where you could still see the lava bursts. We drove to one and lo and behold…an active volcano! While it was somewhat far away, we could easily see the lava bursts coming forth every few seconds from a small part of the volcano. In one area, there was a clear sign asking people not to go any closer for safety reasons. We walked about 100 feet past this sign to get a slightly better view while still remaining far away. We did see groups of people going further, but we needed to get to bed for our very early flight. It was amazing to see an actual active volcano though! What an appropriate ending to our 25 days in Iceland!
Now we actually arrived at our final Icelandic apartment (which actually turned out to be the fanciest one, haha!) We set our alarms for way too early and went to bed…
See you on the next mountain!
July 24, 2025- Total Steps 6,554 (Mostly Flat)
Since you’re into lava tubes and active volcanoes, I recommend Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on Big Island. It includes Kilauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes which are always up to something.