This is the last part of the highlight trip of the hike to the active volcano on Iceland. You can see the first parthere and second part here if you still haven't. In this last post I am showing you the hike back and more shots I took.
Having seen the main 2022 eruption vent and staying there for an hour, It was time to start going back because the daylight was going to be gone soon.
2021 crater and edge of the lava flow.
I did see some rescue personnel roaming the area too. They regularly patrol this place because due to an eruption this location sees hordes of tourists, of which some fail to do the hike and need to be rescued from the area.
Last year it was a huge liquid lava lake. As the eruption stopped from 2021 crater the lake solidified and partially drained. You can see how the upper layer of solidified lava has collapsed down from the weight.
There was a cool overview of the town Grindavik where I also stayed in an Airbnb for this Iceland trip.
And a bit of sunset appeared
This wall you see in the photo below is a man-made protection wall the officials built to stop or at least delay lava flowing to the right into another valley. It worked! Although if the eruption had going on for longer periods of time it might not have held. Lava is much heavier than a pile of gravel. In the other valley, there is a big road going through and it takes much less time for lava to reach it than going through the other valley, that's why it was built.
Here is a view of the other valley where they prevent lava from flowing and a car park where I parked my car to start the hike.
Some marks of bright red lava flowing down there.
A couple of more valley photos at the end of the hike.
To summarize... It was an amazing experience to see all these new craters and brand-new landscapes, feeling the power of mother nature even if I didn't see an actual eruption, it's a sight very hard to describe. If you travel to Iceland then you should surely take the hike if you are up to quite a hard one. Maybe there will be a new eruption soon in this area.
