As I turned off the Ring road, the main and sometimes only road that encircles Iceland, I headed into a vast nothingness of black sand. I was in search of the remains of a crashed United States DC plane that no one ever bothered to clean up. Not just an unbeaten path; rather, no paths lead me out to the windy shore where an isolated plane body lay. I was driving a foreign car in a very foreign country and praying all the off-roading wouldn’t scratch up the sides of our Nissan Quasquai rental.
Iceland is eclectic down to its core, Reykjavík is a lively city where the sun never sets in the summer and the well-dressed, bright blonde Icelanders take advantage of this strange phenomenon through nightly pub crawls and rooftop indie concerts. As for outside the colorful capital city, you may as well be on Mars because I guarantee you’ve never seen scenery like this. It changes instantly from volcanic rocks to green fields to Europe’s largest glacier and more. You may never be impressed by another waterfall again after seeing the monstrosities of Skógafoss, Seljalandsfoss, and Svartifoss. The black sand beaches and basalt rock formations are well worth facing the drastic wind in the most southern city of Vik. Steam rises from the bright blue waters of the famous Blue Lagoon, making it an attraction not to be missed. Seljavallalaug, an old hot spring swimming pool from 1923, sits on a mountainside and is still very warm and still very much open to swimmers. Don’t expect to get a tan, or feel the least bit clean your entire trip but do expect to see unimaginable things.
In a country where the number of sheep out rules the number of people, the undesirability is exactly what makes it desirable. Many gave me looks of confusion when I told them Iceland was my top destination this summer. Everyone seemed to be jetting off to major European cities or taking internships in Manhattan. Then there was me. Living in a car, showering at public swimming pools, bundling in scarves and down jackets, and exploring the most obscure scenery you never thought could exist on planet Earth. Clearly this isn’t a vacation for the high-maintenance.
Before I crossed oceans, when I arrived at Gate C70 in John F. Kennedy International Airport, I realized Iceland is not where the cool kids go. Like me, all the tie-dye wearing backpackers seemed to be looking to get off the beaten path. And that’s just where Iceland will take you. It will wind you through bright green canyons, take you by the very first and original geyser, and show you a culture of music and exciting food and so much more. There will be more waterfalls and hot springs than you ever thought possible and you will jump off and swim in many of them. Go soon because it won’t be long before the world learns of Iceland’s magnificence and all those unbeaten paths turn into paved roads full of tour buses. The secrecy is fleeting but the enchantment will long endure.