7/11/26
For almost two years now Todd and I have been living, serving, ministering, and doing all kinds of work as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Iceland. We have also been using as much of our free time as possible to explore as much of Iceland as possible! This is such an incredible country and we want to see as much of it as we can before we move back to the United States.
One of the places we had not yet had the chance to explore was the Westfjords. “The Westfjords are the oldest part of Iceland geologically, a large peninsula in the northwest of the country shaped by millions of years of erosion into a landscape of deep fjords, rounded mountains, and long coastal roads.” (Read more about them here.) On the map below, the Westfjords are the part of Iceland sticking up and out at the top left.
Months ago we planned a road trip in July to explore the Westfjords for a week. One of the many perks of being senior missionaries is that we can go on vacation! The Mogenhans held down the fort back in Reykjavik and we took our 2026 summer vacation to find adventure in the Westfjords. It did not disappoint! If you don’t like sweeping views, magical vistas, numberless waterfalls, and gorgeous horizons, stop reading now. 😉
On Monday morning we loaded up the car and headed north. We were spending the night in Heydalur and we had all day to drive up and down the fjords, taking time to enjoy the views, fly the drone, and stand in awe of the beauty we were surrounded by. Here are some of the highlight from day one:
Lupine on our way out of the city:
Several different small churches in various locations. I wonder if any of these churches have current congregations?! They are pretty remote.
And the waterfalls! The water in these waterfalls has been running over these same cliffs for thousands of years. Some of them had just a small amount of water in them and they had eroded the cliff faces back into deep canyons. The power of water pressure and time has made their mark on these cliffs.
We were on the road for about five hours and then spent a few more enjoying the scenery. It was nice to check into the little hotel where we spent the night. There were a few features I loved in this place. First is a chandelier in the main building. This light is made out of glass floats! And, second, is a greenhouse with a pool inside. There were tomatoes, grapes, berries, apples, and other fruits and vegetables. 🙂
Also, we are seeing this interesting plant called fifa in lots of places.
And here is how we finished up our day! 🙂
Tuesday we saw more beautiful sights. How to describe them all?! Absolutely incredible. It looks like a good place for a picnic, don’t you think?
We stopped often to enjoy the views and Todd got in amazing drone flights. The waterfalls, the cliffs, and the lupine all work together to make this amazing place.
I found the place on the map that was as far north as we can drive in the Westfjords. It’s called Minnibakki Beach and I was determined to get there. We drove through several tunnels throughout the day, this one on the way to the beach was the easiest to navigate.
This beach is just 26 miles south of the arctic circle. On the map picture below you can see us — the blue dot. The peninsula to the right of our location is a nature preserve that is not accessible by car.
There was another road that turned off from the beach road that Todd wanted to explore. It climbed up the side of a mountain and we were shocked at what we found at the top. Bolafjall mountain has a radar station that was built by Americans in 1992. It is now run by the Icelandic coast guard. There is a viewing platform built out over the cliffs on the north side of the mountain with unbelievable views. It was a reverent place and we were both awed at the beauty of it. You can read more about Bolfjall mountain here.
We were careful to heed the warning signs! It was cool but not windy when we were there. I can see how the wind might blow you over the cliff if you were not careful!
AI has informed me that Bolafjall mountain is approximately 6,680 km from Eugene, Oregon. For some reason they did not put our city on their signpost!
We drove through this tunnel later in the day. It is a one way tunnel and our direction had to pull over to let vehicles coming towards us to pass through. It is a bit unnerving!
Wednesday morning we joined hundreds of other tourists at the most incredible waterfall called Hæstahjallafoss. It is breathtaking. There are several smaller waterfalls below it and the overall sight is magical. While we were there tour buses kept pulling up with more and more people visiting the falls. I don’t blame them! We were glad to be there too. There was a line of people walking up to the viewing platform at the base of the falls and we joined right in.
We hiked up as far as we could go along the path and enjoyed the views. On our way back down Todd slipped on a muddy step and took a tumble. He came out of it with muddy pants and a sprained ankle! Poor guy. We were glad he wasn’t hurt any worse and he was able to hobble his way off the hillside.
That afternoon we took a drive out to the Selárdalur valley at the end of the Arnarfjörður. It was a very passable gravel road with sweeping views and amazing vistas. At the end of the road we came to Samúel Jónssons’s Art Farm, “an open-air collection of concrete sculptures, a hand-built chapel, and a small museum created by a self-taught Westfjords farmer who turned to art in his seventies after a lifetime of working the land alone in the remote Selárdalur valley.” (Read more about this museum here.)
We enjoyed looking at the interesting sculptures and learning about the history of the area. It is definitely an isolated, unique place!
Our favorite part of the outing was a lovely meeting with Júlía Björnson. Júlía grew up in the Selárdalur valley but now lives in Reykjavik. She spends a few weeks each summer volunteering at the art farm. She is also an artist and had some of her paintings on display and for sale. Her paintings are beautiful and Todd bought one for me to give to him for his birthday next week! Júlía shared the inspiration behind the painting and showed us the mountain she painted, just across the valley from the museum. We love it!
We finished this day of our trip with Todd enjoying a ramen dinner and icing his swollen ankle! At least he had great views of the fjord!
Thursday morning we taught an emotional resilience refresher class to the mission from the Westfjords! The internet is amazing, isn’t it? We set up an office space in the cottage we were staying in and talked about chapter 8, “Building Healthy Relationships”. (Learn more about the lesson material here.) This was a fun topic to discuss. We love this assignment!
Of course we went out adventuring after class. We took it easy throughout the day so Todd didn’t overdo it on his swollen ankle and I was just tired. We had two nights in the cottage so we went here and there enjoying the sights around the two closest fjords.
Stóra-Laugardalskirkja —
Garðar BA 64 — Iceland’s oldest steel ship. (Learn more here.)
Strolling along a white sand beach along Patreksfjörður — If it weren’t for the coat and hat, could we convince you we are in the Bahamas?! This water was a beautiful turquoise and the sand was white! Not the usual black sand beaches we are used to here.
And so many waterfalls! We stopped counting how many we’ve seen and just enjoy their beauty and variety.
As we came back into Tálknafjörður there was a small shed that caught my eye. Most of the towns along the fjords are fishing towns and this was a self serve fresh fish shack where you could pick up the catch of the day to take home and enjoy! We didn’t have a way to cook any fish so we didn’t buy anything, but it was a terrific shop!
Friday was the most incredible day of our trip. For ages I’ve wanted to get to Látrabjarg, the farthest western part of Iceland. It is also one of Europe’s biggest bird cliffs hosting millions of seabirds and 14 kilometers (8.5 miles) of cliffs to explore. You can learn more about Látrabjarg here.
This place is incredible. There aren’t words to easily describe it. The birds are beautiful, plentiful, and happy to pose for pictures. We especially loved seeing the puffins. Todd’s ankle was still pretty sore so I took off on a hike along the cliffs and he did an extended photo shoot with the puffins.
Todd took over 500 pictures over the four hours we were there! I’ve chosen some of my favorites but how can you really narrow it down?! Let us know what you think and be sure to follow the link for his Facebook page at the end of the post to see even more beautiful puffins and other seabirds.
I was already on this little ledge when this puffin approached me! He wasn’t bothered by me so I enjoyed observing him.
While Todd was taking photos I hiked about two miles along the cliffside. It was quite the climb and the views were amazing. I may not have made it the full 8.5 miles but two miles of climbing was plenty! I loved it.
I made it to that spot I picked out from down below! 🙂 And of course it took another hour to hike the two miles back down.
We were so enamored by the cliffs and the birds that we nearly forgot to take a picture of the lighthouse. This plaque says, “O Lord our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8:2) There is one who cares for you, who watches over you, and who has already planned your next step: God the Father, Who Loves You.”
It was actually hard to leave the cliffs. I don’t know if I could get bored of the views, the hiking, and the birds. But we did get tired so it was off to our final hotel night of the trip in Breidavik, not too far from the cliffs. In the hotel lobby I was taken by this note and bracelet display by Hlédís. She is 11 years old and her grandmother owns the hotel. Hlédís is learning to play the piano and she is making and selling bracelets to earn money to buy her own white piano! We love piano players and I just had to support her wonderful fundraiser. Thank you for the cute bracelet, Hlédís!
Don’t worry, Todd got something too — this huge hamburger at the hotel restaurant. We were eating at about 5:00, I guess it was before the evening rush?! Or possibly that we were at the very edge of the country and not too many people were there with us?!
Saturday we spent the day working our way back to Reykjavik. It was a beautiful drive, just under six hours long to get home. And of course we saw beautiful things along the way. Iceland knows how to put on a show!
We had such wonderful week together exploring the Westfjords. But it is also good to be home and we spent the afternoon and evening getting ready for Sunday and doing prep work for things coming up next week. We hope you enjoyed seeing the Westfjords with us this week! Thank you for coming along and we’ll see you back here next week for more Richardson adventures in Iceland!
Check out Todd’s social media pages for more photos and videos. You can find him here:
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