South Coast · Iceland
Sólheimasandur
Paid car park on Route 1 where the walk to the 1973 DC-3 plane wreck starts, on a wide glacial outwash plain with no lights nearby. Watch from the car park: the wreck is almost an hour's walk each way across featureless sand.
See tonight's live score and best time to go for Sólheimasandur in Aurora Atlas
Why it works for the aurora
- View
- North over the flat sandur and low hills toward Mýrdalsjökull; the sea is out of sight to the south..
- Darkness
- Very dark sky, grade 0 on a scale from 0 (darkest) to 5. No towns or road lights nearby; the faintest aurora shows.
- Aurora
- Near the edge of the auroral oval: aurora on most active nights, low in the northern sky on quiet ones.
Getting there
- Distance
- About 91 km by road from the middle of South Coast (estimate), roughly 1 h 44 by car.
- Parking
- Paid car park by Route 1 (Parka app).
- Coordinates
- 63.4907, -19.3640 · Open in OpenStreetMap
Before you go
Do not walk out to the wreck in the dark or in winter weather: the plain is featureless and people get lost. Stay at the car park.
Dress for standing still in the cold, bring a head torch with a red light, and park only where parking is allowed. A forecast is guidance, not a promise: check the road and weather warnings for Iceland before a night drive. See our winter safety note.
Spot information from south.is.