There aren’t many places on earth where an admission fee plus a short walk gets you access to an open cable lift that carries you 120 meters down into the heart of a dormant volcano. In fact, we’re aware of only one such place: Thrihnukagigur volcano, located in the Bláfjöll mountains, a 30 minute drive from Reykjavík.
From the parking area, it’s a 3 km hike (about 45 minutes) to the small base station where we listened to a short safety briefing before being divided into small groups (we were our own small group) and then fitted out with harnesses and helmets. The open cable lift took 5 or 6 minutes to reach the bottom of the chamber and then we had about half an hour to explore, marvel at the colourful lava formations and take photographs. We enjoyed every minute of it! Take a look and you’ll see why!
The Hike
Inside the Volcano
Outside the Volcano
As half-day outings go, this one’s pretty costly at about C$400 per person. The price includes transportation from/to Reykjavík, as much coffee/tea/hot chocolate and lamb soup as you can eat and an amazing and unique adventure!
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Amazing photos of a truly unique experience! I assume it must have been pretty dark in the cave. How did you handle photographing in the low light conditions?
You’re right. It was a little challenging. I opted for somewhat higher ISO than usual (500), wide aperture (f 1.7), no flash. The 4 or 5 big lamps shining on the chamber walls helped. No room for tripods on the lift, so whenever possible I used a handy rock to help keep my camera stable for the 1/6 to 1/4 second exposures. A bit of Lightroom processing to bring up the exposure and then, some modest sharpening and noise reduction. Put all of that together and I’m pretty happy with the results.