About fifteen kilometres east of Höfn, the Stokksnes peninsula ends in one of Iceland's most arresting landscapes. Vestrahorn rises 454 metres straight up from black sand flats, its triangular silhouette reflected in the shallow pools that form between the dunes when the tide and weather cooperate. The photograph you have seen on half the Iceland travel boards in the world was taken here. In person it is, if anything, more dramatic — the scale of the mountain against the flat sand and the sea is hard to convey in two dimensions.
Access is through the Viking Café farm on Route 1 — there is a small entrance fee. The track across the black sand dunes to the base of the mountain takes about twenty minutes. Come at sunrise or sunset if you can; the low light turns the mountain a deep red and the reflections in the tidal pools are extraordinary. The black sand is fragile, so stick to the marked paths.