This past July was the first time since the pandemic began that I felt comfortable to travel and I made a beeline to Iceland. My main goal was to explore further into the central highlands than I had done on previous trips. The central highlands are simply spectacular but exploring them in depth is difficult because a specialized 4 wheel drive vehicle is needed along with the skills required to drive these very rough remote roads and deal with the many river crossings that present themselves along the way.

I had heard intriguing reports about a geothermal area named Hveravellir deep in the Icelandic central highlands that was high on my list to check out and it did not disappoint. It turned out to be rather small and out in the middle of absolutely nowhere at the end of a long rough road between the glaciers Hofsjokull and Langjokull. It consisted of a series of small pools of boiling water that were surrounded by intricate crystalline structures but the surprise was the variety of colors of these pools. There was a bright orange pool 10 feet away from a bright blue one but this one was unique in how its delicate structures surrounded a pastel boiling pool.

Since I was the only person here at this time I decided to also explore from above with my drone. Even though I was standing only about 20 feet away from my drone, the drone camera viewpoint from about 5 feet directly above the pool revealed something totally different and made me very glad I had it with me.