The engine revs as I bear down on the gas pedal. The rental SUV, a lumbering machine we've nicknamed cool running’s, greets my effort with the plaintive spinning of snow bound tires. We’re stuck. While some brave souls head to Reykjavik for New Years  - last year U2 front man Bono even made an appearance with singer-songwriter Damien Rice in tow- it’s rare for tourists to tackle the winter roads outside of Reykjavik. Admittedly, winter travel in Iceland is not for the cavalier – we learned the hard way that broad segments of the country’s famed Ring Road are closed but not closed off in winter. It is, however, rewarding. From the pleasure of bathing in the warm iridescent waters of the Mývatn Nature Baths, perfectly cozy even as your hair freezes into a crust, to swimming beneath the stars with the locals in Akuyeri's main outdoor pool, Iceland blossoms in winter. And then there’s the delicate incongruity of beginning a day’s drive wending your way down snowy roads, through mountains, and past smoldering volcanoes before ending it hunting the Northern Lights in a clear, inky sky, with nary a snowflake in sight. It becomes easy to understand the oft cited statistic that more than half of Icelanders believe in elves.

Iceland in winter is magic.