Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach

One of the stops I was most looking forward to was Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach and the basalt columns.  As soon as we arrived and say the fine grain sand covered with snow, we decided to rename the beach to Oreo Crumb Beach.  We've been around lava rock before, but somehow this just hit differently.  

Enjoying the sunset over the waves.

At the far end of the beach there is a giant cliff of basalt columns.  I love basalt columns.  I love the geometry of them.  I love how unnatural they look in nature.  I love that they were made from lava and it just blows my mind.

Fighting each other wish seaweed obviously.

One benefit to being this far north, is that the sunset lasts FOREVER!  You can always get a great sunset picture because you have about two hours to get it right.

Around the corner from the columns was a cool basalt cave.  There were icicles up top that the boys were convinced were going to fall down and stab them.  So of course they encouraged their brother to stand directly underneath them.

The biggest danger on this beach are actually the sneaker waves that come up surprisingly far and can sweep you into the ocean.  I was worried that some of the kids might not be paying attention so I didn't want them to get close to the water.  What did my teenage daughters promptly do?  Stand as close to the water as possible then run away in mockery of my concern. 

 Jeremy joined in the fun and they had a contest to see who could guess as accurately as possible how high up the waves would come on the beach.

Meanwhile Daxton and I were trying to get cool pictures of the very smooth black rocks.

Silly poses because too many pretty poses is just boring.

Reynisfjara Beach Memories

Kelton: I liked climbing the mountain of columns.  The sand and rocks were fun.  It was scary how Cambrie found the carcass. We liked running away from the waves.  We were playing a game where we had to guess where the waves would come up.  If the waves got too close then we had to run away.  It was fun.

McKenzie: I liked this one.  I liked the columns.  We look really fancy in that photo.  We tried to see who could get closest to the water, after mom told us not to go close to the water.

Cambrie: Mom was paranoid.  I thought it was funny.  So we played a game to see who could get closest to the water.  I found a dead animal. That was pretty sick.  I think it was a dog.  It was my beach bod.

Jeremy: I liked staring at the black sand and white snow.  That was really cool.

Daxton: I liked the time that mom and I had together when we couldn’t find the family.  I liked being on a really high column.

Annette: How are places like this even real?