I had the opportunity to explore North Iceland’s highlands via Super Jeep. The Icelandic Highlands rank amongst Europe’s largest unpopulated areas, and can be difficult to visit, even in the summer, so being able to explore the area in the winter is really a unique treat. It can only be accessed with 4×4 vehicles, particularly Super Jeeps.
A Super Jeep is a standard truck/SUV/jeep/van/other 4×4 that is modified by local workshops according to strict regulations. Mounted on 95-120 cm tall tires, they’re equipped with everything needed to take on Iceland’s extreme and unpredictable nature and changes in weather. The vehicle from my tour is actually regularly used to carry around crews for Hollywood movies, and was even equipped with a snorkel so it can be fully submerged in water.
Our first stop was off the Ring Road, at magnificent Goðafoss (Waterfall of the gods). Like a smaller version of Niagara Falls, water from the glacial river Skjálfandafljót falls from a height of 12 meter over a horseshoe width of 30 meters. This waterfall played a big role in Icelandic history: according to the Sagas, the waterfall got its name from when a pagan priest and chieftain (goði), made Christianity the official religion of Iceland. After making his decision, he threw his statues of the Norse gods into the waterfall (foss).
I’ve visited Goðafoss in both summer and winter. In the summer, you can go down a set of stairs to experience the waterfall up close. In the winter, the staircase is closed, but I think the falls look more impressive, as part of it freezes into stunning icicles.
From there, we drove up the Bárðardalur valley, off-road, through deep snow to reach the majestic waterfall Aldeyarfoss. The water here tumbles through a narrow passage, through stunning black basalt columns, into a wide basin. Anyone who received postcards from me will recognize this waterfall!
It was a really snowy day, and you can see from the two photos how the weather worsened… in the span of only 5-10 minutes!
Shortly after, our jeep got stuck. It turned out that our back tires fell through ice as we tried to cross a small river. Normally, crossing rivers wouldn’t be a problem, but we were suspended by heavy wet snow, so the tires had zero traction. You can see how deep we were stuck. This actually happened on a local farmer’s land. He was in some sort of mood and didn’t want to help us, so we had to wait 3 hours for someone from town to come and rescue us! There was a lot of digging in the meantime, but because of all the snowfall and wind, it was like taking two steps forward and one step back.
Our first attempt was to attach a rope to the front of the jeep, but we were so stuck that the rescue car kept sliding towards us. We then tried the same tactic from the back and it worked! My guide was over 6ft tall — you can see how deep the ruts were in one of my pictures.
From there, we made our way to the hidden gem Hrafnabjargafoss. This waterfall is not known by many and very few tourists ever see it. It’s even rarer for people to see it in the winter. The falls spreads out over a series of cliffs and at one place it falls into a closed rock bowl and then under a stone bridge to continue down the river. This was actually my favourite waterfall of the day — I was mesmerized by the icicles and the interesting geology of the area. It was also a good hike to the waterfall too, as we had to cross a mountain in near white out conditions to get to it. When we arrived, the snow stopped temporarily.
Our last stop was to the great Ice wall at the black sand beach Kaldakinn. However, when we arrived, we were surprised to see that the entire area was flooded, for the first time in at least 18 years. Because this hasn’t happened recently before (and probably because barely anyone goes here anyways), there were no markers showing where the road was. In addition, the GPS wasn’t as accurate as we needed it to be in that area. We attempted to drive over, but there’s a sharp 90 degree bend in the road at one point, with deep gullies on either side. If we fell, there would be no saving us out there. My guide stopped the jeep and jumped out to find the bend by foot, but discovered that 1) the road itself was actually covered by thigh-high water and 2) we were about an inch away from nosediving into the North Atlantic Ocean. At that point, we decided to turn back (and not die lol). It was also nearly whiteout conditions again by the time we found the regular road again.
Though we didn’t get to see the wall itself, the scenery on the way there was beautiful and well worth the drive, especially these cliffs that lead up to the wall.
Instead, we drove along Fljotta, an exclusive river where people go salmon and arctic char fishing. A lot of celebrities actually go up there too. The roads were technically closed because of all the snow, but the Super Jeep was able to handle it. We drove all the way to the interesting Laufás Turf House, which we explored at nighttime, before heading back to Akureyri.
It was quite an adventure and I would definitely do it again!