There is a lot of great stuff near Reykjavik but there are even more all around Iceland. I looked at the map of things I thought would be great to see and most of them were clustered along the southern coast. So then I planned that we would drive along the coast to Höfn (around 450km/280miles) and make as many stops as possible, spend the night, then hit the ones we missed on the way back or make repeat visits to the ones we wanted to see again.

The first stop was Seljalandsfoss, the same waterfall we drove to at night to view the Northern Lights. This time we walked around the back side of the falls then walked over to the two smaller nearby falls. The fun part was Gljúfrabúi which you can't easily see from the ground. You can either wade through a narrow crevice to climb up the hill in front on it. We chose the latter. It was tricky since it was a little muddy but doable and fun.

After that we stopped at Skógafoss Waterfall. It was overcast so we didn't see the famous double-rainbow. We did go back the next day when the weather was nicer. We also climbed the stairs along the side to the top of the waterfall and walked up river for a bit. There seemed to be a pretty long trail there and we wish we had more to to hike more of it.

The next stop was to visit the DC-3 plane wreck. It's not really prominent in the guide books so we were surprised there was a full parking of cars with no signage at all as to what is there. We parked and did the >2 mile walk to the plane. It was a VERY boring walk over gravel and strong cold winds. Once there we were disappointed there were so many people already there so it was very difficult to get get good pictures. Then we did the long walk back to the car.

Our next and last stop for the day was Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach. By then the weather was already turning worse with stronger winds, overcast and now some flurries. At the parking lot exit was a warning about how dangerous the waves are at this beach. We visited the Basalt Columns, the various caves, walked over to the Reynisdrangar basalt sea stacks and took some pictures. We then stopped at the cafe to warm up with coffee and hot chocolates.

After that the weather slowly turned to full-on blizzard so I just focused on making it to Höfn to rest and hope the weather is better the next day. We went into town and had some decent pizza by the harbor and checked into the lodge where I booked a room.

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