We woke up in the parking lot to the Fagradalsfjall volcano on the tenth day of our Iceland Ring Road trip because we were hoping the foggy weather from the previous day would clear up and we could hike to the volcano sometime during the day.

We didn’t even need to look outside to see whether the fog had cleared up because all night long, our vehicle had been pounded with rough wind and rain. The volcano was definitely going to be a no-go that day!

There were a few attractions nearby in the south region that we had had to pass up on during the beginning of our Ring Road trip due to car troubles, but two of them were outdoor hot springs that didn’t seem appealing to do in rainy weather. And the other activities were sight-seeing drives that would have required a 4WD vehicle, but after experiencing problems with our 4WD vehicle the day before, we had to trade it in for a 2WD camper van.

We also had one more full day left after this one, which was one more chance to see if the weather would clear up for another visit to the volcano, so we didn’t want to travel too far away from the volcano area.

We settled on revisiting a waterfall on the south coast that was one of our favorite experiences/sights during our 2018 trip and only required a short hike. We had hiked to the waterfall the previous time in rain, so we didn’t mind that we would be doing the hike again in the rain this time.

Back in 2018, this waterfall was not very well known, which was almost the entire reason it had been one of our most cherished experiences; however, it was clear that the popularity of the trail had increased since then because there was now a parking fee and a new paved path had been created to help manage the erosion of the muddy trail.

There weren’t a lot of people visiting the waterfall, but it was enough that we spent an unnecessarily long amount of time waiting in the pouring rain to hopefully get a photo without anyone in the background. Our 2021 experience was definitely less magical than our 2018 one, but the waterfall itself and lush valley were just as mesmerizing as we had remembered!

After our hike, we did an obligatory stop for the ever-famous (and extremely crowded) Skógafoss waterfall on the south coast, as well as a quick, impromptu stop for an intriguing historic cave off the side of the road. Other than that, we didn’t have much energy left to plan anything else for the day.

We decided to find a campground somewhat early that afternoon and there was nothing to really write home about with campground, except it had some handsome horses, it had free, hot showers, and it was a reasonable one-hour distance away from the volcano, so we could wait on standby for an eruption and good weather to line up.

Stay tuned to see if we get to visit the volcano one more time before we have to give up our wheels.