On Saturday, we woke, grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel, and headed down the street to the bus stop to await the bus that would take us to Þríhnúkagígur, a dormant volcano. The bus ride was mostly uneventful (except for circling the city and going to various stops trying to find a passenger named Karl, who two other passengers said would be “devastated” if he missed the tour; we finally found him). They drove us to a building on the outskirts of the lava field, where we were briefed on what would happen. We then headed out on a two mile walk across the lava field. Our guide pointed out various features, such as a lava tunnel and another spot between the tectonic plates (similar to that in Þingvellir). We eventually came to a building that was referred to as base camp.

At base camp, we were briefed again on the next portion of our journey and we were split into three groups. The two of us and three others were deemed Group 1, which meant we would be the first to go inside. We put on a harness and a helmet and then hiked up the short portion remaining to the top of volcano.

We boarded the elevator, and it began to slowly lower down in the volcano. Once we reached the bottom, our harness were unhooked and we were free to roam about the area outside the elevator loading zone, which roughly went in a circle. It is nearly impossible to describe or show in photos how massive it was. The rocks forming the walls were all different colors, which our guide said was not caused by the eruption but caused by gases from afterwards. Each gas turned the rocks different colors. As we were Group 1 in the first group of the day, we got about 15 minutes with just the six of us inside before Group 2 was lowered down. When the third group came down, it meant it was our time to go back up.

We returned back to base camp, where a hot traditional Icelandic lamb soup was awaiting (there was a veggie option as well). We ate our soup, and I had a cup of hot cocoa as well. We chatted with some of the others in our group while we waited for the others to return.

On our walk back across the lava field, it began to rain pretty steadily. We were wearing our rain jackets but hadn’t put on our rain pants, and I wished we had at least carried them with us, as our pants were soaked by the time returned. We also passed Karl, who was returning to base camp because he had forgotten his backpack. Oh, Karl. Eventually we boarded the bus and headed back to Reykjavik.