Iceland: Happy Campers Visit a Volcano

Posted on November 14, 2022 by The Owl

Why Rent a Camper Van

Back in 2018 when I first started reading about Iceland, I stumbled on a blog detailing a visitor’s Ring Road adventure in a camper van. The Ring Road goes all along the perimeter of Iceland, not including the Westfjords or Snæfellsnes Peninsula and a few other peninsulas. You can rent a car and travel the road, staying in hotels or renting guest houses and AirBnbs along the way, but with a camper van, you have more flexibility. You can linger longer in some places and skip other places altogether, and with the abundant campgrounds throughout Iceland, you’ll always have a place to stay for the night. You can follow the good weather, back-track to places you missed, or spend several days in one area. I had not camped at a campground of any type since middle school or maybe even elementary school, so this would definitely be an adventure.

Happy Campers Happy Auto 2 camper van — We did not get a picture of our camper van on the day we picked it up, but we did get a picture the next day at the Grindavík campground.

After reading reviews about camper van rental companies (there are many in Iceland), we chose Happy Campers. Their selection of vans covered both manual and automatic vans as well as 4x4s, and they had rave reviews. We picked the Happy 2 Auto. As is typical for many Americans, we don’t know how to drive stick, but with our love for travel, we probably ought to learn (something to put on the to-do list). Our camper van had all the essentials, sleeping space for two, blankets, pillows, refrigerator cooler, cook stove (and propane), cooking and eating utensils, plates, cups, and a heater. We also got some extras including additional sleeping bags, a tablet with maps and wifi, hiking poles, folding table, camp chairs, and French press travel mugs.

our hiking — We piled up all our luggage and gear in the middle of the floor at Happy Campers while we waited to access our van.

The staff at Happy Campers showed us all the ins and outs of the camper van. We got the insurance package that covers gravel damage (this is important in Iceland). Then we signed off on some paperwork, packed up the van, and took off on our big adventure.

Happy Campers had a book exchange as well as an area where previous renters could leave unfinished food and supplies. I’m always entertained by reading materials people pass along to others. Check out that bosom heaver, “Ceclia and the Stranger.” Scandal!

First Things First – Groceries!

We are practical folks so our first destination was the Bónus grocery store. We stocked up on food for the next several days, including pasta, bread, skyr, creamer, coffee, various spreads, crackers, pears, apples, tuna salad, egg salad, chips, etc. Bónus reminds me of Aldi in its simplicity and wide assortment of food items. One of our most-treasured purchases happened to be a bag of black licorice in various flavors with a pirate theme. I had never eaten berry-flavored black licorice or chocolate-covered black licorice. We soon discovered that Icelanders love black licorice and even serve licorice ice cream (spoiler alert: it is outrageously delicious!).

Bonus shopping bag — Bónus shopping bag souvenir for the win! I cannot tell if the pig is friendly or demonic.

Fagradalsfjall Volcano

As we sat in the Bónus parking lot around 1:30 p.m., we discussed whether or not to visit Fagradalsfjall volcano. We decided that even though it wasn’t active that we’d enjoy the experience of being near it. From what I could tell, the hike took about 3 hours up and down a mountain range around the cooling lava in the valley. The weather forecast showed sunny skies and high winds at 20 mph. Without very many trees Iceland experiences some mighty windy days so that is fairly normal. We decided to give it a go and drive south a half hour to the volcano.

We found several sight-seeing locations in the region of the volcano, and we had no clue which one to choose. We saw a busy entrance so we picked that one. We pulled our camper van up alongside a bunch of other camper vans and hopped out to get a feel for things. As soon became the norm for us, we made decisions about which layers to wear, which layers to leave behind, and what gear we needed. Though neither one of us had much experience with hiking poles, we decided to take them with us just in case, and I’m forever grateful we did.

Volcano Hiking

The walk from the parking lot to the first sign about the volcano took at least twenty minutes, and I was already a little puffy despite exercising almost daily for months. We looked back toward our van, and it looked like a toy miniature. Scale proved to be the hardest thing to capture during this trip. Without a lot of reference points like buildings or trees, pictures look less grand than the reality.

Sign for Volcano viewpoints — Here is our first set of signage for the volcano hike. Notice how far away that parking lot is.

Susan near cooling lava fields — This is as close as I got to the cooling lava fields. You cannot tell, but they are still far away from me in this picture.

From that first sign, we could hike down the hill toward the cooling lava, or we could hike up the mountain. Another sign explained how to stand to minimize inhaling gasses from the lava, but we figured the wind managed that just fine. We picked the mountain hike since we didn’t need to feel the heat of the lava to know it’s real.

parking lot far in the distance. — Again, look how far away the parking lot is. We were climbing ever higher.

Graham with volcanic landscape — Graham managed the hike quite well, and his cap kept his hair under control.

Graham and Susan among lava fields and mountains — We battled the wind to get a quick selfie with the lava fields.

The mountain consisted of lava gravel, sand, and dirt in switchbacks. The ground constantly shifted under our feet. We decided to each use one hiking pole since neither of us were versed in using two, and we found that the single pole gave us the stability we needed, especially with forceful wind gusts.

View toward the ocean — Looking toward the ocean, the volcanic landscape seems otherwordly, and you would never know how high up we were for this picture.

After we climbed one set of switchbacks, we would crest the mountain top only to see even more switchbacks going up another mountain. This went on and on for a couple of hours. In the valley below us and along the mountains across from us we could see black swaths of aging lava flows steaming and smoking.

lava fields with the sea in the distance — You can see where the lava flowed into the valleys. At this elevation, helicopters carrying tourists were below us.

More scenes of the lava flow in the valleys — I bet this was spectacular when the lava was fresh.

We finally hit a point where we decided we had seen enough and turned around. The fierce wind nearly blew me over several times on the way back, but I dug in with my hiking pole and waited out the gusts. Once again, our layers saved the day, and we stayed warm even with the crazy wind.

Susan hiking down the mountain — My trusty hiking pole made the journey down the mountain a bit safer as gravel slipped underneath my feet.

Grindavík Campground, Fish & Chips, and a Pint of Gull

The view from Café Bryggjan — We enjoyed our view from our table at Brúin.

We pulled into the Grindavík campground around 6 p.m., located a nice spot for the night near the bathrooms, and paid at reception. Overall, we found campground staff throughout Iceland to be very relaxed and friendly. We checked around the town on Google maps and landed on a seaside restaurant within walking distance for dinner. After a day of adventure fish and chips and a pint of Gull (local beer) hit the spot at Brúin. We slept soundly in our cozy camper van, and I even got a FitBit sleep score of 82.