Iceland's remote location and harsh climate aren't exactly welcoming. But its striking scenery, draped with glaciers and punctuated by craggy peaks and steamy geysers, makes this destination increasingly attractive to nature-loving travelers. On one of my trips from Europe back to the US, I took advantage of Icelandair’s free stopover and spent several days exploring the island.
Besides touring the capital city, Reykjavík – where 60 percent of Iceland's 370,000 citizens live – I took time to seek out the more isolated areas. The country's interior is basically uninhabited, but its perimeter is encircled by an 800-mile-long Ring Road, also known as Route 1. This road – not completed until 1974 – makes it possible to visit the country's more remote geological oddities.
With my guide Arnar at the wheel of a sturdy “super Jeep,” I spent a day in volcano country in Þórsmörk (Thor's Woods), a nature reserve in the southwest surrounded by mountains, rivers, and lagoons. The weather was terrible, but it was still a glorious day as we ventured up a long lava-flow valley in the shadow of Eyjafjallajökull, the famous volcano only Icelanders can call by name. Non-Icelandic speakers are invited to refer to it by its first letter and the number of letters that follow: E15.
In our 4x4, Arnar and I climbed crumbly hills, forded rivers and a wet volcanic desert, and eventually parked at the foot of a mighty glacier for a picnic. The valley landscape has plenty of moss a.