Iceland Day 4: Waterfalls, Puffins, Ice Cave Tour, & Black Sand Beach

I’m back home now after flying in yesterday evening! I still have a few posts left to share from Iceland so today I’m covering day 4. Day 4 in Iceland consisted of waterfalls – Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss, seeing puffins, an ice cave tour, and a black sand beach.

Seljalandsfoss is popular because you can walk behind it. Skogafoss has steps you can curved along the side to go to the top of the waterfall.

First was Seljalandsfoss.

Then, we went to Skogafoss. We only went up maybe 1/3 of the way because the way the steps go once you go further than that you can’t see the waterfall again until you reach the top and the top was a long and steep climb up that we didn’t feel like embarking on at the time.

Then we drove down to Vik where there is a viewpoint of a black sand beach and a famous arch called Dyrhólaey. It was really beautiful there and we saw puffins!

Next, we grabbed lunch (food post still to come) and my cousin and I went on an ice cave tour with Katlatrack. They do small group tours and as the other group was a large family, we ended up having basically a private tour with our guide who was actually named Thor! Another Katlatrack employee was with us, I don’t remember his name, but he was the one who checked us in and then he came along to take photos of the cave/glacier. The excursion was a lot of fun. We had to go off-road over the lava fields and then walk with those spike things that you attach to your boots for traction to go over the ice and slippery areas since a lot of the ice from this glacier is covered with volcanic ash and rock.

It was totally doable, but definitely not super easy either. My cousin and I felt able to do it all, but it was a little scary at first to go up and down the slopes in fear of slipping and also across the wooden planks to go over the running water! It was an amazing experience and one of my favorite parts if not favorite part of the trip. On the drive back, Thor did a little side trip to the black sand beach and drove over the beach to see if we could see any seals but no such luck.

After we got dropped off, we met back up with the rest of the family and we went to the black sand beach to walk around and see the stretch where there are rock formations in the side of the hill/mountain that were used in filming Game of Thrones.

Finally, we ate dinner before making the 2.5 hour drive back to Reykjavik. The last photo is from the drive back. This photo was taken at 9:40pm and still looking like daytime!

That wraps up day 4 of my Iceland trip! One more full day to cover and then food, reading, bookstore posts before I’m done sharing Iceland content!