Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Iceland

 I could not even begin to pronounce this area, peninsula and national park, even if I tried!  

We decided to visit the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, northwest of Reykjavik, but first things first... we had to get our Covid tests for our return trip home.  Thankfully, my friend John had been to Iceland the week before and told me NOT to worry about this massive line.  We had appointments for rapid tests, which allowed us to bypass the line and go right inside. We were in and out in 10 minutes!  People have asked me - well, what are these people waiting for?  The US allows rapid tests for reentry, but some countries only allow molecular PCR tests.  So these are either locals trying to get tests or tourists who need the molecular PCR tests.  This line wrapped around 3 sides of this building!  I would have panicked if John hadn't told me to skip the line!

Low clouds loomed as we set off for the Snæfellsnes peninsula. The good news, is that by the time we left for the day's adventure, we already had all of our negative tests back!

Here we are in the Hvalfjörður Tunnel which is just north of Reykjavik and goes about 540 feet below sea level and a little over 3.5 miles long.  It's scary, but it takes about 45 minutes off of the trip up to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula.

The drive out here is EXTREMELY desolate and devoid of humans, especially when you get on Route 54 past Borgarnes.  Eventually, you reach Grundarfjörður - if you need gas or to go to the bathroom, stop here because there is not much else out here.  The population in this town is a little less than 900,or to put it in perspective, about 10% of the size of the town we lived in in Germany.  Just a few minutes past this town is Kirkjufell, or "Church Mountain."  Which was, of course, enshrouded in clouds when were first caught sight of it.

I took this picture from the Kirkjufellsfoss parking lot, looking out over the harbor and you can see the town of Grundarfjörður.

I think this is everyone making fun of my parking job.  Time for our daily picnic!

I know, I know.... but it's not like the parking lot was full!  The area to the left is also not even a real parking spot.

This mountain is pretty cool - it was featured in Game of Thrones!

Kirkjufell Mountain is known as Arrowhead Mountain in GoT and it's where the Night King was born.  Bran visited there, and so had Tormund and Jon Snow - when they spot it on their venture up north to find the White Walkers.  The Hound also dreamt of it!

I feel like this particular company had a ton of these vans with the motto, "Don't stink and drive!"  That or we kept seeing the same person over and over again on our travels!  This was taken in the parking lot of Kirkjufellsfoss, which sits across the road from Kirkjufell Mountain.

There is a river that comes down out of the mountains here and eventually makes its way to the falls.  In America, someone would try to build over there on the left bank (the low part of course.)

We got our first glimpse of Kirkjufellsfoss and it was beautiful!

Is this even real?  Humans for scale, naturally.

We waited patiently for a family of like, 12 to stop posting Instagram pictures of this waterfall so we could get a closer glimpse.

I always need a human for scale.  Preferably on a crumbly bridge overlooking a waterfall.

The base of Kirkjufellsfoss is on relatively flat land.  Because it sits next to "Church Mountain" - the name of this waterfall naturally translates to "Church Mountain Falls."

Me and my honey at the most (??) photographed waterfall in all of Iceland. That seems sus! There are so many waterfalls equally as beautiful!

Grantie was repping his Iceland hat - which probably makes him taller than me at this point.

Sitting 463 meters (or a little over 1,500 feet) up, Kirkjufell mountain seems more imposing than it really is since the land around it is pretty much at sea level.

I have legit concerns about this bridge and the scouring that seems to have happened here.

It's cool to see the lower part of the three level falls at ground level, which is your first left from the parking lot. But the real views come from the other side -- on the right side of the falls, if you're facing them.

Stunning.  I'm getting sad that our iPhones take better pictures than my expensive digital camera.

Maybe 20 people at Kirkjufellsfoss meant it was super easy to avoid humans, as we were trying to do.

The river runs down to the Atlantic from here, right next to it's sister mountain.  That sister always has her head in the clouds!  (Ok, bad Dad joke!)

You can get a fascinating panorama from the far side of the falls!

It honestly wasn't as cold as we are making it out to be here.  But isn't my family cute???

I am so in love with floodplains, it's scary.  You're not gonna believe this (!!) but the river Kirkjufellsá (!!!)  flows down from the volcano Helgrindur (not seen here.)

I was majorly geeking out. It's so beautiful, and the beauty of an undeveloped floodplain is why I love what I do!  (Even if most of the floodplains I deal with are fully built out!) This is what Mother Nature intended!

No, no... THIS is my future home!  Middle of nowhere, built into the side of a mountain, but not too far from a pretty floodplain.

Alas, we had to move on... and we continued on toward Ytri Tunga beach, which was on the other side of the peninsula, separated by a giant mountain that my poor rental car that had absolutely terrible brakes had to climb.  Somehow we survived! Oh hey look, another waterfall!

We finally made our way over the mountain and got to Ytri Tunga beach.  Unfortunately (and I had been warned about this) there was a dead beached whale on the shore which was quite stinky and very sad to see.

After saying a little prayer for the whale, we headed toward the rocks to try to spot some seals.  Good luck getting across the small stream by balancing on a piece of wood!

Walking out on a sandy trail to see the seals. 

At first the seals were a little hard to spot because some are the same color as the rocks!  But look at that guy just all sprawled out looking so comfy and cute!  Todd and Grant went farther out on the rocks to get a closer look.

There's a few of the lazy seals lounging around on the rocks.

There were a few seals over on the outer rocks too.  They have two types of seals that frequent the area - the Harbor Seal (or Common Seal) and the Gray Seal. The Gray Seal is bigger than the Harbor Seal, but the Harbor Seals are more common in these waters.

Females live longer than males for both seal species, with the Harbor Seal living to up to 30 years and some Gray Seals reaching up to 45 years old!

The common American female, seen here lounging on the rocks, lives to an average age of about 80.5 years.

I love this little one (and the one on the right!).  He looks like he's just having a great, relaxing day!

I am not sure who I am laughing at here!  (It's probably, "Stop taking pictures of me, Todd!")

Stay a minimum of 50 meters away from the seals (100 meters if you see pups, which I don't think we did.)

This guy was swimming around in the water! He was more active than most of the others.

Bailey's on the rocks.  Did Todd shoot this in portrait mode?

Then we decided maybe we would rather have a Bailey family selfie with actual seals in the picture!

I liked this rock, and that I could see to the ocean between it. 

Time to head back to the car - here honey, take my hand and I will help you across the log bridge.

This poor whale was very stinky, and there were so many people around it!  I wonder why Iceland doesn't dispose of the poor thing.  Maybe it's organic this way?

Alas, we made the long drive back to Reykjavik - but thankfully the rain had ended so the drive back was uneventful.  Apparently our "neighbors" had been out in the pool and - oh no! - it left a big dead ring of grass!  Hope it was fun!

Until next time, Snæfellsnes Peninsula!