Our winter in Iceland started with another colorful sunrise! This was right outside from our house!

Itinerary for today: hunt for the plane wreck. In 1973, a US Navy Douglas Super DC-3 crashed on the beach in southern Iceland and it was a miracle that everyone on board survived the crash. The plane was left there and became one of the most photographed spot in Iceland. The last time we were in Iceland, cars were allowed to drive onto the beach but no clear road to reach the plane so was risky; I read some non-4×4 car got stuck. This time, the access was banned by the land owner so people ended up parking near the gate and walk down the ~2.5 miles each way. I wasn’t even sure where the entrance gate is but luckily I found this blog: https://expertvagabond.com/airplane-crash-wreckage-iceland/

The entrance gate was very close to our hotel and we passed this along the ring road yesterday; no wonder why so many cars parked there!

The gate that used to be open for cars to drive in but no longer the case as of Nov. 2016:

Follow this rocky path down to the beach….eventually, you’ll hit the end but still a distance from the plane wreck. The plane wreck location was such a mystery for a long time because you can not see any sign of the wreckage until the very last few feets! When we were there, a lot of people were making their way back so it helped us to head toward the correct direction without much thinking.

There it is!!!

Those people were camping overnight there, we saw their blankets and the portable gas bottle!

We walked to the other side for photos of us two only, photographer: Zach 🙂

Those people left and we walked into the plane for more detail examination of it…..the original pipes and cords were still there.

I was waiting for this guy to move out of the way but no luck but surprisingly I like the photo with him in it haha!

Zach made a brave attempt to climb up the plane!

The minutes of silence has come to an end when more and more people arrived, it was time for us to head back…..2.5 miles. We got back to the car and drove back to our hotel where we had a quick lunch – our sandwiches. Our next stop was the hidden waterfall near Skogarfoss which we had to trespass a private farm….

The sun already starting to set….our short daylight in Iceland…weird but amazing!

On the way, we saw a lady who looked like a local who bought two other people along with her (tourist or friends?). She stopped and asked me how I find out about this waterfall. I said a friend of mine found it during her trip this past summer and highly recommended to me. She asked me to keep it a secret, don’t want this hidden gem to leak out, I said sure! So…I am not going to tell you the exact location or the name of this waterfall…all I can say is it’s in the same area as Skogarfoss 🙂

We followed this narrow path to reach the waterfall tucked inside the small canyon.

It was very peaceful there with only us 3 and another couple who were ahead of us.

I saw the guy walked to the back of the waterfall, it looked slipper so we did not even try, not worth to risk it.

We headed back and the sun was slowly setting…….

Next, we drove to the touristy Skogarfoss…look at how many people are there compared to the other one!

I managed to snap a photo before my lens get water drops!

Jason and I walked back to the car while Zach hiked the staircase up to the top; we did it last summer so no need to do it again. The hike was exhausting for us back then haha! Last stop, we drove to Seljalandsfoss, the famous waterfall that you can walk to the back and around it 360 degrees. However, the path to the back of the waterfall was covered in ice!!! It looked super slippery so Jason and I gave up and just wait there for Zach who we saw was struggling to avoid falling. Especially on the water side of walking down those staircases, people had to walk backward down! We were glad that we did all those waterfalls during the summer time, winter is very difficult!

Done with waterfalls and headed back to cook our meal. It was our last night so we had to finish all the food we bought so we had a big meal. Jason made the yummy homemade beef balls and I did grounded beef with pepper stir-fried. Yummy!!!!

Our last night of trying to see the Northern Lights for one last time….headed out at 10 pm…we stayed in the car at the parking lot of Skogarfoss for 2 hours where Zach and I fell asleep. Jason woke us up at 12 am and we gave up and went back to our house 🙁 No luck…but we can’t complain that we had seen 2 great shows in our 7 days! It was definitely an epic trip to remember, Northern Lights – thank you very much!!!

To follow up…..Zach dropped his camera backpack in the parking lot of the rental car return and when he got home he realized his camera broke! The lens mount damaged the camera so it couldn’t focus. But he wasn’t upset; he viewed it as an excuse for him to get a better camera…..a Canon 5D Mark III, welcome to the club, Zach! He’s already asking me when will be the next Northern Lights hunting trip and he better get invited haha! I heard that Tromso, Norway is a great place for the Northern Lights 🙂