Explore Mývatn and the northeast
Set at the base of a broad inlet on Route 85, VOPNAFJÖRÐUR is a relatively sizeable town of two parallel streets arrayed along the narrow, rocky finger of the Kolbeinstangi peninsula, and is famed for its warm weather and salmon fishing. The surrounding area featured in several interconnected Settlement-era tales of clan feuding known as the Vopnafjörð sagas – appropriately enough, Vopnafjörður means “Weapons Fjord”. Today, Vopnafjörður is really just somewhere to pause where routes to Egilsstaðir, Mývatn and the northeast meet, though there’s an interesting folk museum at nearby Bustarfell, and the region’s only thermal pool at Selárdalur.
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Kaupvangur Culture Centre
Kaupvangur Culture Centre
After the lands southwest of Vopnafjörður were sterilized by the 1875 eruption of Viti in Askja, the town became an emigration point to the US and Canada for around two thousand impoverished farmers and their families. Canada, which at the time had a “populate or perish” policy, offered subsidized passages for anyone wanting to migrate, and sent ships to take them. Kaupvangur Culture Centre, in a restored, yellow-painted corrugated-iron warehouse next to the fish factory, has extensive records and a small photo exhibition on this slice of Vopnafjörður’s history, along with a few cases of stuffed birds.
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Selárdalur pool and Selárfoss
Selárdalur pool and Selárfoss
About 7km north of Vopnafjörður on Route 85, a good side road (signed “Selárdalslaug”) leads 3km southwest through the Selár valley down to the salmon-rich Selá river, where a small swimming pool by the water, complete with basic changing rooms and showers, utilizes the northeast coast’s only economically viable hot spring.
Just upstream from the pool is a monumental new salmon-fishing lodge – the Selá is one of the most expensive fishing rivers in Iceland – past which 1km along a jeep track brings you to Selárfoss, a 5m-high tumble of clear, emerald green water.
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Bustarfell
Bustarfell
About 18km south of Vopnafjörður along Route 85, Bustarfell is an open-air museum featuring six well-preserved, turf-gabled farm buildings. The farm was founded in 1770 and has been restored and furnished to reflect what it was like when last occupied in 1966: sepia-toned photos, farm equipment, lamps fuelled by shark or seal oil, and pantries full of wooden storage tubs. Various events through the year bring the place back to life, with people dressing in period costumes – call in advance for dates.
