Our first stop was the Sugandisey Island Lighthouse, which I described on the lighthouse page. We then drove through light rain to the town of Grundarfjordur where we managed to get photos of the iconic Kirkjufell Mountain with rainbows. This “church mountain” claims to be the most photographed mountain in the country, and we got it with rainbows. Yay for the light rain this morning after all!

The beach at Skardsvik was a shiny, golden color like smashed mica and not black like we have seen so far. The dirt road to the beach is fine; it only gets dicey after the beach on the way out to the lighthouses.

After driving out to the lighthouses, we made an alternate turn on our route, and passed practically everything on our list before realizing it. We managed to turn around, find a WC that I desperately needed in Arnarstapi, and get back on track. It was all very scenic anyway!

Arnarstapi Cliff is famous for birds and coastal hiking trails. There is a statue of the giant who protects the peninsula near the parking lot.

Hellnar View Point had a large viewing platform where we could see a cave with pounding surf and a concrete barrier to protect the coastline. We thought it looked good for smuggling as well as for birds.

Longdrangar View Point shows the two huge sea stacks that are visible for quite a distance. It is so windy here on this coast with nothing to break up the wind as it comes across the Atlantic Ocean. The water just beats against the exposed shoreline without the protection of a bay.

Vatnshellir Cave is another lava tube tour in this area. We missed stopping at Djupalonssandur Beach and Saxholl Crater, which were also on our list.

After our coastal view points, we took a turnoff that we thought would give us a view of the Snaefellsjokull glacier, but this road turned out to be another crazy, rocky road that we didn’t want to tackle. I turned the RAV around with help from Martie and a nice German family to go see Songhellir, Song Cave. They also decided to go no further on this road, and we met them again as we did a short hike to hear the acoustics in the row of little caves.

Our final stop on this peninsula, Ytri Tunga Beach, was advertised as a white sand beach, but it is “normal” yellow sand. Most of the beaches we have seen have been black. There was a rocky outcrop with seals in the water. We watched them pop up their heads to watch us. There were lots of people here. Without a telephoto lens, you have to trust me that these are seal heads among the rocks.

Snaelsfellsnes Peninsula needs more than one day of exploration time.