Lava tubes are formed when flowing lava moves underneath the hardened surface of a lava flow. They can be active, or in the case of Raufarholshellir lava cave in Iceland, extinct, meaning the lava flow has cooled and left a long cave like channel, 1360 meters long to be exact. Iceland has many lava tubes and Raufarholshellir ranks in at the third largest in the country.
Our trip to Iceland wouldn't be complete without exploring one of its lava tubes, but as with the rest of my research, finding any information on cave locations and descriptions was next to impossible. Every tour guide, and in Iceland there are a billion, offers a guided tour to Raufarholshellir and other caves just like it, but with a price tag of around $200+ per person it isn't easy to afford on a budget. But if you're comfortable with your skills, are a little bit adventurous, have a helmet and some flashlights you can do it without a guide pretty easily.
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| Spelunker. |
After hours of searching for a good cave that was close to the road and somewhat easy to locate, I finally found info on Raufarholshellir. The website for Extreme Iceland, which offers guided tours to many of the country's attractions, was nice enough to list a lot of information about the cave, and this website listed its exact location, and even included a small map of the area.
We woke up on Sunday morning greeted by strong winds and rain on our first day in Iceland. The night before had been somewhat rough. It was hard getting to sleep with the 24 hours of daylight and the 4 hour time difference to get used to. After an odd Icelandic breakfast of watery yogurt and open faced sandwiches, we headed out on the road to the location of the cave.
The night before we had arrived in Iceland at 1140pm, immediately picked up the rental car and set out on what was probably the most frustrating, travel exhaustion induced 30 mins of driving to the hotel in the only few hours of darkness we encountered the entire trip. I was reminded that Mark can't read a map for shit, and that Nancy thought this was hilarious. We did however find the hotel that night, and now that day had come driving was a million times easier.
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| Spotlight. |
We arrived at the cave, which was situated in a massive, flat, rocky lava field that stretched for miles in all directions. Because of this the wind was howling and driving the rain against our car. There was one other vehicle in the gravel lot, an Extreme Iceland tour van. We packed up our bags in the Tetris packed hot wheels-sized car and headed out down the trail to the mouth of the cave.
The first section was quite open and a few sections of the roof had collapsed in leaving behind large spotlights that illuminated the cavern below. We descended down, and then back up again a few times past these spotlights until we reached the true beginning of the cave. The last light-filled section was covered in ice stalagmites caused by the dripping of water through the cracks in the ceiling above. Although we were underground, the rain hadn't let up much, it was dripping through these cracks as fast as it was falling from the sky outside, making the scene even more epic. As we entered the cave, the tour group passed us on their way out, the guide yelled something in Icelandic "Forgen fujurrjoger rekjavurgen huslavik!" or something like that. Then again in english, "Are you guys with the tour?", "No." we responded. "Oh, you're doing it by yourself..........awesome. It's great, I hope you make it all the way to the lava waterfalls at the end!" We intended to.
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| Wisps. |
After the last glimpses of light faded into the distance, we paused for a moment and turned our flashlights off. The darkness was indescribable. Nothing, not a single fraction of a section of anything could be made out in any direction, just darkness. We turned our lights back on and continued on through large open sections and smaller corridors, going up hills of rocks and down their opposing sides. The walls were lined in goopy lava that had dried up in a hurry and looked like melting ice cream frozen in time. We finally made it to the end of the tunnel, which had now narrowed to about 6 feet across and 8 feet high. At its very end there was a lava waterfall, or what used to be a waterfall and now was a petrified cliff of smooth lava rock pouring down from a hole near the ceiling. We took a few photos and ate some of Nancy's famous snack collection and then made our way back to the entrance.
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| Lava Waterfall Dudes. |
We stopped after about 15 minutes to regroup and as I hoisted my backpack up onto my shoulders, my headlamp scanned the room, passing two tunnels. Two. Fucken. Tunnels. There had only been one, that I had known of at least, on the way in. A little panicked I announced the situation and decided to choose the one on the left because that seemed, to a level headed person who wasn't a mile deep in a cave, to be the right choice. But as your brain tends to do with hard decisions, I began to over analyze the choice. "Could it have been right? Maybe it was right." Nancy asked if I was sure this was the right direction, "Yes, now stop asking me!" I snipped back. How could I not have seen the other tunnel? Time passed and I began to worry more. Then Nancy's flashlight died. Worrying increased. Then I saw a wall of rock in front of us that I hadn't remembered on the way in. Worrying increased. But finally after about 25 minutes I saw a splash of white on the wall that extended to the floor. I had noticed it on the way in, naming it "Sploooooge Wall", I'd never been more happy to see splooge in my life. After another 15 minutes or so I could see light pouring in, slightly at first, and within no time we had reached the mouth of the cave.
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| Ice Stalagmites. |
We took a few more photos and then headed out, passing another group who was entering the cave. Once in the car I let out a sigh of relief, and then headed to our hotel in Reykjavik for the night.
Mileage: 2 Miles
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| Flow. |
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| Not natural. |
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| Hiking trails. |
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