Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
INFORMATION
National Parks Visitor Centre The informative o ce at
Ásbyrgi (daily: May & Sept 10am-4pm; June-Aug
9am-7pm; T 470 7100, W vjp.is) organises camping
permits and has general park information.
Maps There's an inexpensive national park map, marked
with hiking trails, available from the Visitor Centre (free if
you're camping); Mál og menning's Akureyri-Mývatn-
Dettifoss sheet also has a detailed section for Jökulsárgljúfur.
Activities Active North ( T 858 7080, W activenorth.is)
offers horseriding around Ásbyrgi from June to Aug, though
they also have some trekking options.
Services The N1 roadhouse at Ásbyrgi sells fuel, fast food
and a good range of camping-oriented supplies: groceries,
refrigerated bbq meat packs, bread, milk, camping gas and
other essentials.
6
ACCOMMODATION
The sole accommodation in the park itself is camping at two designated sites, open through the summer. You can camp
elsewhere and at other times only with prior permission from the park headquarters ( T 470 7100; E asbyrgi@vjp.is).
Ásbyrgi campsite The national park's main campsite,
close to the visitor centre and N1 fuel station. The facilities
include a laundry with drying cupboards, barbecue and
tables, payphone, children's play area and s helter (s howers
are an extra 300kr). Closed Oct to mid-May. 1200kr
Dettifoss campsite This free campsite, with no facilities or
water, is just outside the park boundaries on the west side of
the river at Dettifoss, accessible on foot or along Route 862.
Vesturdalur campsite Grassy, slightly boggy meadow
with toilets and sinks for washing up; there are no showers
or cooking facilities. Access is on foot or via Route 862.
Closed Sept 16-June 6. 1200kr
The northeast
Iceland's extreme northeast corner is, frankly, a bit of a backwater; there are no great
sights and Route 85 between Ásbyrgi and the town of Vopnajörður traverses a barren,
underpopulated countryside (most people left in the late nineteenth century after the
volcanic activity at Askja had sterilised the region). Having said this, the northeast's
scattering of small fishing towns and an understated landscape of moorland and small
beaches have their own quiet appeal; and the Langanes peninsula also has some great
- and relatively undemanding - hiking potential. Don't forget that you're almost inside
the Arctic Circle here, and summer nights are virtually nonexistent, the sun just dipping
below the horizon at midnight - conversely, winter days are only a couple of hours long.
Melrakkaslétta
Lying fractionally outside the Arctic Circle, Melrakkaslétta (literally Arctic Fox Plain)
forms Iceland's northernmost peninsula. The empty tundra might not look that
inspiring, but in its own way Melrakkaslétta has as much wildlife as Mývatn: a coastline
of shingle and sand beaches pulls in plenty of wading birds; while the tundra and an
associated mass of small, fragmented lakes attract big ground-nesting colonies of eider
HVALREKI!
The northeast's score of little black-sand and shingle beaches are strewn with two valuable
commodities: huge quantities of driftwood , mostly pine trunks floated over from Siberia on the
currents; and a disproportionate numbers of stranded whales . The latter were once something
of a windfall for local landowners (the term hvalreki , literally “whale wreck”, is used nowadays for
“jackpot”), providing meat, oil, bone and various tradeable bits, such as sperm-whale teeth. In
saga times, people would actually fight for possession of these riches, but today a whale
stranding is a bit of a burden, as the law demands that the landowner is responsible for disposing
of the carcass - not an easy matter in the case of a thirty-ton sperm whale.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP COUNTRYSIDE AROUND MÝVATN P.254 ; JARÐBÖÐIN NATURE BATHS P.255 ; HRAUNHAFNARTANGI
LIGHTHOUSE P.266 >
 
 
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