Mother Nature blessed Iceland with unrivaled natural beauty. Visiting the island is like seeing a celebrity in real life. You thought your hometown was pretty, but after seeing Iceland, you realize it’s on an entirely different level. Throughout your travels around the southern coast, you’ll occasionally see something human-made that marries perfectly with the landscape. Sometimes it’s by accident. Day 5 on our Iceland itinerary features black sand beaches and the remains of a miraculous survival story.
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Solheimasandur
Start Day 5 with a two-hour round trip hike to a United States Navy plane that froze, ran out of fuel, and crashed on the black beach at Sólheimasandur in 1973.
The plane wreckage paired with the moon-like scenery creates an out of this world experience. The extraterrestrial landscape is very similar to Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho.
Few people know that during WWII, Britain invaded Iceland. There was no battle; they just showed up and set up shop. It’s like a neighbor invites themselves into your home and starts putting together the IKEA furniture you just bought. You are initially confused, probably even upset, but then you see they are helping improve your home and just kinda let them keep going. But Iceland also did not have a military, so they really didn’t have a choice either way.
Britain later transferred the control of its bases to the US Army to be a strategic supply depot between the US and Europe. America built a substantial amount of roads and constructed the airport you flew into when you landed in Iceland.
After WWII, the US stayed as the protecting force of Iceland just in case the world fell apart again. To this day, Iceland still does not have a standing army.
On November 21, 1973, the Douglas DC 117 Airplane was transporting equipment from the small town of Höfn. The weather took a turn for the worse, and the temperature dropped below 15 degrees, and ice began freezing over the engines. To make matters worse, they were low on fuel. As the engine went out, the five-man crew had a choice to make, crash the plane into the nearby mountain, or bury it into the ocean. They knew no one would survive the crash into a rocky mountainside, but the water landing may give them a fighting chance. They dipped down out of the clouds bearing towards the cold ocean.
The wild thing about black sand beaches is that they blend so well into the water. The sand turns the water black as sediment stirs in the waves. The crew discovered this rather quickly as their plane fell out of the sky. They found it was not the ocean they were plummeting towards, but rather the beach. The sand spectacularly softened the impact of the crash. All the crew members survived without a scratch.
The Army was no longer building these models of planes and therefore deemed it too much of a hassle to recover and left it exactly where it impacted.
The trailhead for the plane wreckage is well signed and can easily be found using GPS.
There are bright yellow markers on each side of the track, so it’s easy to follow even at night. If you don’t want to walk, there is a shuttle that goes back and forth every hour or so.
There’s one fork on the dirt road, and you’ll want to stay left here. It’s only a few hundred yards past the gate. After that, the trail heads straight towards the ocean. Follow this for about a mile. You won’t spot the wreckage until the last minute because it’s hidden behind a sand dune near the edge of the ocean.
If you hiked in and found your journey to be a bit more than you bargained for (we battled near 30 mph winds on our hike), you can take the shuttle one way back to the trailhead parking.
Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach
While you may be sick of the sand after that hike, you’ll still want to visit Reynisfjara Beach, universally considered to be the most beautiful example of Iceland’s black sand beaches. If you’re a Game of Thrones fan, this is a must-see. It is the beach at Eastwatch by the sea where the men in the night’s watch are guarding the wall during season 7.
Adding to the real-life fantasy scene, Reynisfjara Beach features an unusual cliff of basalt columns resembling a rocky step pyramid.
Black Beach Restaurant
Before or after exploring the beach, have a bite to eat or a warm beverage at Black Beach Restaurant. There are only a few options to eat in Vik, and this is at the top of the list. Try the lamb chops. Icelandic lamb is remarkably flavorful. Sheep in Iceland roam free in the vast fields creating a slice of excellent lean meat. They are also raised with no antibiotics and no added hormones, thanks to the country’s strict agriculture regulations.
Continue on to Day 6
In case you missed it:
Chad can be summed up by his idea of a perfect day: Waking up early to watch the sunrise over the mountains, warm cup of coffee in hand then grabbing his camera and fly rod, hitting the trail to explore some uncharted territory followed by cold beers and campfire steaks. Chad is often joined on his adventures by his wife, Tori, and their dog, Kona.