Djúpivogur to Egilsstaðir, 16 Aug 2026
This was mostly a driving day, but we did make some quick stops before doing a hike in Stuðlagil Canyon, with waterfalls, columnar basalt, and a bit of scrambling.
It was the usual morning of breakfast, packing, and getting into the vans. We drove a bit before pulling into a small fishing village to get items for lunch. The small café/store had a lot more customers than is probably usual, and the locals who were trying to buy things were thankfully patient.
We made a couple of quick stops along the way to break up the distance. Along the way, there were several times when we needed to drive around sheep either along the side or in the middle of the road.
Food acquired, we went to the Hallormsstaðaskógur National Forest and had lunch by Lögurinn, a long glacial lake. People shared things around while enjoying the view.
Stuðlagil Canyon
The main activity for the day was hiking in Stuðlagil Canyon. Before starting the trail, we made a stop at the top to go out to the overlook to see what we were going to do.
Once we were on the trail, we started off along the rim of the trail, taking in a couple of viewpoints. There were a couple of places where we could go down by the Jökulsá á Dal River at the bottom of the canyon. There was a bit of scrambling to get from place to place and we got a lot of great views of the columnar basalt which made up the canyon walls as well as the turquoise water of the river. There was a large rock in the river that you could climb up, but it did require a bit of scrambling. A few of us made it up, and other group members were watching for us from below.
After going to a couple of other viewpoints, we started up above the canyon rim along a ridge and followed that until it joined the main trail near the parking lot.
We then drove to Egilsstaðir where we would be spending the next three nights. Several people were looking forward to not repacking every night.
Since we wanted to get our laundry done, we went straight to the hostel, which had laundry machines, and started the load. With that going, we ate dinner at the café next door, went to the grocery store to get some food to share for breakfast the next day, then moved things to the dryer. Since we wanted to make sure everything got dry without having to wait two hours, we took a bunch of clothes to air dry in our room while the rest went into the machine. We hung out a bit in our lodging, then went back to pick up the dry clothes. By that time, it was late enough for us to turn in for the night.
