The Blue Lagoon was our first geothermal encounter, and that national treasure gets its own page.

After supper on that first day with the car, we ventured back out to the Hveradalir Geothermal Area which is a small spot near Hveragerdi with bubbling hot springs and sulfur in the air. We were the only ones there, and we had our first battle with the Parka app to pay for parking. There was a kiosk to use a credit card, so we managed to pay up.

The next afternoon, we got to see Strokkur Geyser which is a crowd pleaser that goes off every six to ten minutes with two-three bursts of boiling water shooting up about 60 feet into the air. We walked around to see other bubbling and steaming areas here, and we could always tell when the geyser went off due to the oohs and ahhs of the people watching. This is a very popular spot.

Our final encounter with geothermal areas happened when we had worked our way around to the north side of the island at Lake Myvatn. On our way to the bird museum, we drove by Blue Lake, obviously named for the amazing color, but when we tried to photograph it later in the day with the sun low in the sky, the blue color was hard to capture. Google maps shows it beautifully. The Hverir mudpots and steam vents are on private property that has been developed with parking lots and marked or elevated walkways. This is other-worldly like Yellowstone, and is stinky with sulfur in the air. Rocks have been piled on the steam vents, so they aren’t completely natural looking. Seriously, who wants to get that close? Some are now roped off to prevent this.