With the newest gain in the road works in Iceland it will be much easier to travel in the Westfjords in the winter time: through the tunnel “Dýrafjarðargöng”. Until now the Westfjords have for 4 – 5 months in the winter been split into the northern- and the southern fjords through the mountain Road Hrafnseyrarheiði between Arnarfjörður and Dýrafjörður.
From now on it will belong to history that people, which needed to get between the towns Bíldudalur and Ísafjörður, made it on a 120 km long trip in the summer but had to drive about 500 km in the wintertime. On last Oct 30 the 6,5 km long tunnel under the mountain Hrafnseyrarheiði was officially opened as an all year connecting lane between the neighboured towns in the northern and southern Westfjords, shortening the distance by 27,5 km.
There’s though still one threshold left on that route, the mountain road Dynjandisheiði. This southern most part of the whole road passes among others one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Iceland, Dynjandi, which falls in several cascades and opens up like an apron in its 100 meters drop, still leaving 5 beautiful, separate falls underneath. This waterfall is at the bottom of the Bay Dynjandisvogur, which extrudes the great bay Arnarfjörður.
On the southern side of Arnarfjörður, in the breathtaking valley Selárdalur, is the well known exhibition from a naive artist, the late Samúel Jónsson.
But “the show must go on”. The road workers have already begun to improve the mountain road from Dynjandisheiði down to the attractive Vatnsfjörður nature reserve, where one of the facilities of the Nordic Lodges is located with a stunning view on the bay and the islands: Tvera-lodge.
And a little scoop in the end: according to the latest news, the already existing nature reserve Vatnsfjörður, including a big chunk of land north of there with the waterfall Dynjandi and many more gems of the nature, will in the coming year (2021) be announced as the next -the fourth- National Park on Iceland!