June 1 - Backtrack for nearly an hour to the turnoff for Stuðlagil Canyon on a gravel road. We would have done this yesterday but adding yet another hike seemed excessive.
The gravel road is in good condition and follows the river valley to an overlook over the canyon (west side). Now I understand why the advice is to go to the east side, because there is a flat hiking trail there that we can see from the overlook.
Anything look familiar from other rock photos? Yes, once again we are looking at columnar basalts. But even after seeing as many as we have, the exposures of this canyon are really impressive. It is obvious that we need to do the hike on the east side, which has access to the edge of the river.
The parking lot for the east side is a place called Klaustrudel, just north of a waterfall on a tributary into the Jökulsá á Brú River.
Though the trail is level and looks easy, the wind in our faces is strong and 30 minutes to the viewpoints tires us out.
The descent to the river and the views upstream and down are well worth the effort to get there.
From here, all the way back to Egilsstaðir for a food run at the local Bonus supermarket, then back to Reyðarfjörður to put perishables in the fridge. From here we go east along the north side of the fjord and then northeast to the end of the road at Neskaupstaður.
Here there is a local museum, Safnahúsið Neskaupstað, overflowing with items. It is really three distinct collections (separately on three floors): the Museum of Natural History, Jósafat Hinriksson's Maritime Museum, and Tryggva Olafsson's Art Collection.
The art collection is from an artist who spent his life and received his inspiration from Iceland and Denmark. Also old people photos on display. Something about the grizzled, hardy appearance of the Icelanders of the old days says much about how difficult life was here.
Every manner of maritime tool is present on the second floor.
While Mike and Debbie go in search of restaurant options, we go out on the pier near the museum.
We couldn't find a suitable restaurant, so we drove back to Reyðarfjörður and made do with the options available there. The search for restaurants in smaller towns of Iceland was much like I had been warned: when you find them, they are expensive or closed.