Iceland in Winter: Reynisfjara, Vík, and Reynisdrangar

On our first day of our first trip to Iceland, we drove our rental car from Keflavik International Airport toward our first scheduled excursion, the Snowmobiling Tour on Myrdalsjokull Glacier. Although we departed from the airport later than we originally estimated and despite unfavorable weather conditions with blowing snow, we still were on schedule to reach our departure point 30 minutes in advance of our 12:30 pm departure time.

We received an e-mail message a couple hours before arriving (but did not read it until about 30 minutes before arriving) that explained this first excursion was canceled "due to weather conditions on the glacier as wind and snow are beginning to pick up, creating a white out conditions." It was a quick lesson in preparing for change of plans when vacationing in Iceland in the winter. The positive of this cancellation is that it made time for us to visit Reynisfjara black sand beach and the charming gfishing village of Vík.

Reynisfjara black sand beach is located west of Vík í Mýrdal and relatively close to our anticipated departure point for the snowmobile tour. When we realized our scheduled tour was canceled, we were already near the exit to Reynisfjara and decided to go see it because our previously scheduled South Shore Adventure had been changed from visiting Reynisfjara (due to falling rocks) to visiting Dyrhólaey Peninsula instead (days later, we'd find out that tour was canceled as well; had we known that was coming, we would have visited Dyrhólaey while in the vicinity).

Reynisfjara beach is known to be dangerous (see video) if its waves are not respected (don't get too close, never turn your back to it, etc.). Falling rocks are also a potential danger at the east end of the beach.

We decided to go to nearby Vík í Mýrdal for lunch after visiting Reynisfjara beach. After arriving there and before stopping for lunch, we decided to return to the observation point near the beach to view and take photographs of the Reynisdrangar Sea Cliffs. The next two photographs shown the long black sand beach here between Vík and the ocean with Reynisdrangar.

As spectacular as this beach was, I was even more intrigued by Reynisdrangar.

After eating lunch at The Soup Company (Súpufélagið ehf) in Vík í Mýrdal, we proceeded to Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon and ultimately to our lodging for the night at Fosshotel Glacier Lagoon (Hnappavellir, 785 Öræfi, Iceland). Along the way, we saw a small but beautiful waterfall right alongside the road.

We also had seen the tourist-frequented waterfalls Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss from the "Ring Road" (Road 1) as we had driven from Keflavik to Vik, but we did not pull up next to these significant warerfalls or take photographs of them because we thought we'd be back with the South Shore Adventure tour in a few days.

We drove past Fosshotel Glacier Lagoon so that we could see the glacier lagoon before the sun was completely down and then drove back to the Fosshotel Glacier Lagoon to check-in.

Here are some photographs of the scenery between Fosshotel Glacier Lagoon and the glacier lagoon itself.

On our first full day of our winter Iceland vacation, we had already had our first scheduled excursion canceled (it would be the first of three canceled on this trip), but we were able to take advantage of the cancellation to see Reynisfjara, Vík, Reynisdrangar, and other beautiful winter landscape in south Iceland.