79th Birthday & Active Volcano Visit

2022-08-15Finnur's family, Friends, Us Standard

[Photos taken 15 – 18 August 2022, posted online on 01 May 2023, yet another gorgeous and cold day.]

After our vacation in the US, the adults returned to work, Emma tried out a nearby tennis camp (wasn’t great), Bjarki roamed free with friends, and Anna began studying biomedical engineering at Reykjavik University.

Later that first week back, I lucked out and got to tag along with some hiking buddies to the active volcano that had started erupting at the beginning of August in Meradalir.

We were just in time, because just the next day the volcano quieted down at lot, and the day after that no fresh lava was visible, and that was the end of that eruption!

Posing in front of the then active volcano in Meradalir.

Monday 15 August 2022

Picking Emma (in the green fleece jacket) up from half-day tennis camp. There were a lot of unruly kids there, and the trainers weren’t having a lot of luck in taming them. She finished the week, but the camp pretty much killed any interest she had in tennis.

Wednesday 17 August 2022

The Marel parking lot now sported these fancy family spots. It was a little weird to show up again as I’d resigned a little over two weeks before, but there were some loose ends to tie up.
It is a law of nature that the weather is always nice during Finnur’s dad’s birthday-party!
Guests!
Cake!
Hosts!
Teenager!
Autumn colors!?!

Thursday 18 August 2022

Busy parking lot by the start of the hiking path.
Let the hike begin!
The hiking route, starting on the lower left, ending top right with the small volcano vent. The orange part of the path was super nice, but a long stretch in the middle, on top of the “hill”, was “path-less” meaning you had to navigate an endless array of protruding rocks (colors mine). The total hike was 13 km/8 miles. The light purple was the lava field from the previous 2021 eruption, and the dark violet circle is about where the 2021 main crater looms.
There was a steady stream of people coming and going. The weather was perfect!
A closer view of the switchbacks that had been dug into the hillside.
Up we go!
By the bottom of the switchbacks. On the top right you can see where the lava stream from the previous eruption (Mar 19, 2021 – Dec 18, 2021) tumbled down the hill.
A better view of the fresh 2021 lava field, with humans for scale.
Signs are good!
Obligatory selfies.
Heading up the switchbacks, this is where we’d come from. The Search & Rescue teams were there from early morning until midnight, as people tripping and breaking something was a near-daily occurrence. They had a few more all-terrain vehicles further up.
Looking down the valley where the previous lava tumbled. I hiked to the lowest-most part of that with Anna and Bjarki the previous year.
I was so happy it was dry, because I’m sure that path is a slippery mess in wet conditions.
Top of the switchbacks reached, now it was all flat until descending towards the volcano.
Where there are tourists, there are cairns!
The path snaked on, but we noticed a group of people that had clambered down to the previous lava flow to rest and eat.
This used to be a valley, all that grey stuff is new.
The chilly wind picked up and we stopped to add a layer. This photo shows the path that had been cleared, and the rocks, endless rocks, outside of it.
The crater from the 2021 eruption, it’s big!
Then the path ended. Better pay close attention to where you step!
So many cool colors!
The long line of people behind us.
After about 25 minutes of clambering over rocks, we finally hit the path coming from the volcano. Phew!
See the smoke in the distance? That’s the new vent. The “old” volcano was on the right still.
Animated gif from a short video looking around.
Some very clever people had put down lights to guide hikers.
2021 lava field vs people in the distance.
What the light-gray edge looks like.
We kept going as the sun set. August sunsets are veeeery loooong.
The 2021 crater colored by the setting sun.
Oooh, look what we found!
Selfie-time! This is at 9 pm.
The eruption had again kindly started at the bottom of a valley, creating a nice natural seating area above it.
Nice spot for some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!
It’s hard to picture just how steep that viewing hill was, I was a little worried about loosing my footing, and tumbling down.
Out came the big camera with the big lens, but I was too lazy to bring a tripod.
Viewing angles are interesting, here are some people lower down on the hill from us.
Captivated by the view.
See the green drone-blip?
Lava splashing. You can spot a drone if you look closely.
Zooming in on the firepit. It was very active.
Animated gif from a short video.
A streak of red hot lava was visible further down the valley.
Mesmerizing!
Animated gif from a series of photographs, again no tripod, so not still.
A few people clambered all the way down to the lava’s edge.
It soon got chilly, and we got ready to leave. First a few more photos!
It was hard to leave!
All of a sudden a swarm of people appeared in colored vests, almost certainly from some group operator’s bus.
The last shot before packing my big camera away.
As it got progressively darker (this is at 10:15 pm), the crater got brighter in comparison.
Looking back towards the volcano on the way back.
There was a steady stream of people leaving, but some just arriving. (Animated gif from three photos)
We hit the no-path zone, and were all happy to have headlamps.
The guiding lights were very useful! The photos are a bit brighter than real life.
It was so nice when the path started up again, but we almost missed finding it!
Lots of people on the switchbacks.
We made it to the parking lot shortly before midnight, and drove home smiling.