Iceland VIII: Canyons and Whales in the Far North

We drove far, far north, on August 18, 2022, through Jokulsargljufur National Park to Husavik, which bills itself as the "whale watching capital of the world."  
 

The circle on this map, southeast of Husavik, is Lake Myvatn, where we began and ended our day.

This map shows how far north and how near to Greenland Iceland is.  The north end of Iceland, near Husavik, is bordered by the Arctic Ocean.

Jokulsargljufur National Park includes the whole peninsula north of Lake Myvatn, including the powerful waterfall, Dettifoss, and also the strange formations of Hijodaklettar and deep Asbyrgi Canyon.

We took a short hike among the Hljodaklettar rock formations.  Audrey was just up from her two-hour nap, and she fairly bounced with excitement.  Heidi and Calder Burke turned back at the first stream crossing, but Mike lifted Audrey over the stream. Audrey and I rambled along together, as Mike and David strode ahead to the huge, black, jagged rock formations in the distance.

Audrey picked flowers as we walked, chanting, “I like flowers.  I like flowers.”  She picked one yellow dandelion after another, with no stems, and tucked them into my hand to hold for her.  “One, two, three, four…lots,” we counted.  Audrey picked a white flower or two, but the yellow ones were her favorites. When we handed the flowers to Heidi for safekeeping, Heidi sighed. “We are filling up the bottom of the car with rocks and flowers.”

Asbyrgi Canyon is spectacular.  It is a horsehoe-shaped canyon created by glacial floods.  

Our guidebook said the area is a favorite of many Icelanders, but we got just a taste of it.    Audrey stayed in the car with Calder and Heidi, as Mike and I took a short nature hike into a thick, lush forest with tags identifying birch trees, blueberries, and other plants I didn’t recognize.  After the moonscapes of yesterday, it was Eden!

We continued our drive around the peninsula until we reached Husavik, a quaint fishing and whale-watching town. 

Riding in an open whale watching boat with a toddler and a baby on this chilly, windy day was not realistic.  We'll save that for a return trip!

We did spend more than a hour in the excellent Whale Museum.  There were skeletons of many species of whales along the second floor loft, including a narwhal, orca “killer” whales, and even a huge, humpback whale calf. They were all collected from beached whales who died nearby.  

We ate supper at Naustid, an excellent restaurant in a historic home in Husavik. When it was built, in the 1920s, it had the only bathtub in town, and the whole town came to bathe.  Now the 1920s bathtub sits in the front yard, planted with flowers.

Audrey and I walked outside to inspect the bathtub filled with flowers.