Golden Circle, Iceland

I decided to break up the Golden Circle so we wouldn't have a super long day like we did yesterday.  Not that there's anything wrong with that!  But jet lag and kids and long hours spent in the car... we just couldn't!

We needed some provisions about halfway through our week, so we ran over to the Bonus to grab a few things before we headed out for the day.  If you're in Iceland and you're missing the All-American Cheesecake Factory, well - no worries! They've got you covered!

Icelandic grocery store - like most other European grocery stores!

We packed up the car and headed out again - this time, to the famous Golden Circle.  On this particular day, we decided to skip Thingvellir National Park and do it on a separate day because we were tired and wanted to sleep in a bit!  The Golden Circle is an easy day trip from Reykjavik and it hits a handful of Iceland's most famous sights.

But if you head south on Route 1, you will (at some point) come down a very windy mountain.  There is a little pull off on the right side (if you're heading south) and if the weather is right, the views are amazing.

We wanted to drive out to the farthest spot and start our day there, so we drove to Gullfoss waterfall which is about an hour and a half away from the city.  We decided to have our lunch right away, sitting in the back of the car when suddenly... a few men on horses busted into the parking lot as they were trying to wrangle some wild horses that got away from them.  The wild horses were just trotting through the parking lot of the waterfall!  So this guy circled around to go back and get them.

All the wild horses were eventually rounded up and they moseyed down the road on their merry way.  Ok, they didn't mosey- some of them were running!

This guy brought up the rear of the horse parade, making sure no one got out of line again! Boy, if I had a time for every time this happened to me.......

One of the things I had to eat on my scratch off food map was Hangikjöt (which is a smoked lamb or mutton.)  But since we weren't going out to eat much, I didn't think I was going to be able to scratch it off - because you know the rule is that I have to eat that food IN the country that I visit!  Imagine my surprise when I found it in sandwich form at the Bonus!

Just having a picnic in the back of the car, absolutely killing it.

Might be Grant under all that hair, hat and mask... might not be.

Gullfoss has a large visitor's center that you pass to get to the falls - and this was our first view of Gullfoss! Whoa!

The Hvítá (or "White") River feeds into Gullfoss and there is a dramatic three step staircase that has two waterfalls between them.  Above, you can see two of those "stairs." The bottom of the stairs is down in the gorge below.

My little buddy at Gullfoss. Someday, we will teach him how to smile with his eyes open.

We have been pretty lucky to see some amazing rainbows in these waterfalls because we have had SUN on this trip!  

Gullfoss means "Golden Waterfall" - although it didn't look golden at all to me. They believe it's called this because it's sometimes a golden color due to it's glacial origins, although some believe it's called this because of the rainbows people often see in the spray (Ha!  See the picture above and below this one!)

Humans are on the far left side under the rainbow, for scale.

You can walk beneath the spray to get over to the lookout and get a fantastic close-up view of the falls.

Cliff edge is unsecure. Sure, I feel safe!

Here you can see the falls make their last drop into the gorge. According to Icelandtravel.is (a great website, by the way), "Gullfoss is the largest volume falls in Europe, with the average flow being 1400 m³/s in the summertime and 80 m³/s in the wintertime. The highest flood measured is 2000 m³/s." Say WHAT?  Superlative, check!

The sound of this rushing water is VERY loud.

World of Waterfalls put Gullfoss on its World Top 10 List of Waterfalls!

Gullfoss is about 32 meters, or about 105 feet from the top down to the crevice (or is this a crevasse?) 

Much like at Seljalandsfoss, you might get a tad wet due to the spray from the falls.  It wasn't as bad as Seljalandsfoss though. Put your hoodie up and plow on through.

Hey!  Their eyes might be open!  You can get super close to Gullfoss down at the view point.

After we hiked back up the hill, and then back up 100 steps to the path to the visitor's center, Natalie had had enough, so Todd, Grant and I went to the upper viewpoint which is even higher up! And the rainbow was still glowing!  The views up here were spectacular and all encompassing.

GRANT.  I can't even. Also:  Todd - the only person to ever get a sunburn in Iceland.

After our visit to the falls, Todd drove us about 10-15 minutes down the road which takes you over the Tungufljót River where there are plenty of salmon and trout among the rapids.

Our next stop was a geothermal geyser area! Here, there are two famous geysers - one currently active geyser called Strokkur and one inactive geyser called Geysir - which is where the English word comes from!

That's roughly 175F to 215F.  That will burn you, quickly.

Strokkur is Icelandic for "churn."  It erupts about every 5 minutes, although sometimes it's more or less frequent than that.

Whoa!  That is AWESOME!!!!!!

They key to taking good pictures is to watch for the bubble (which you can see erupting here) and then snap, snap, snap!

The water is very blue when it erupts!  Meanwhile, there are many other colors around the such as white for sulfur and and orange-red color for iron, both of which are minerals that come up here from deep in the earth.

I also like the mini tidal wave it creates when it erupts!

It's like Todd is holding Strokkur geyser up with his finger!

There's more to see than Strokkur - if you head up the hill, you will find Blesi!  This hot spring is beautiful - clear, yet colorful.

On average, Strokkur is a bit smaller than Old Faithful in Wyoming.  However, it erupts more frequently. Old Faithful apparently (according to signs around Strokkur) erupts every 30-100 minutes, but Strokkur is about every 5-8 minutes.  It's a bit shorter though, at 25-35 meters (compared to 25-55 meters with Old Faithful.)   

Meanwhile, over in the corner is Geysir.  Since it's inactive, it's generally not as crowded here. "The geyser is dormant. Eruptions are rare."  Earthquakes tend to make Geysir a bit more active, but we certainly didn't feel any when we were there.

Although our pal Geysir is in an inactive period, it last erupted in February of 2016.  Phew!

Bailey family with the OG geyser.  Notice someone took my sunglasses.

It might be dormant, but the geyserite shows plenty of white silica, and it's obviously piping hot!

Here is a close up of the edge of Geysir with a few homes in the distance.

If I didn't tell you, you might not know that there was water here.  It's hard to get a good picture of Blesi the hot spring when it's letting off so much steam!  And let me tell you - that steam is STINKY.  There's a deep smell of sulfur here at the geysers and hot springs!

Next, we were off to Kerid Crater! 

You can walk around the caldera of this volcanic lake in about 15 minutes - so it's a quick, easy and beautiful stop.  This is one of the few things you have to pay for but it's only about $3 USD, and they charge this because this lake is on private land.

Kerid is one of the baby volcanoes of Iceland, since it's only about 3,000 years old.  It's about 180 feet deep (so don't roll down that hill!)

It's thought that this was a cone shaped volcano 3,000 years ago - and it emptied it's belly of magma, thereby caving in on itself.  No one really knows though, since there were no people here at the time.

Why are my children the ones closest to the edge here??  Notice I'm trying to give my hand to Natalie (JUST HOLD MY HAND SO YOU DON'T ROLL BACKWARDS DOWN THE VOLCANO!)  Man, I'm terrified of heights!

I always say this, but Todd takes a nice panorama photo.  He must have a steadier hand than I do!

OK, we aren't as close to the edge here, phew.  The lake that formed here is about 15-20 feet deep.

I took this picture of Todd and the kids about 75% done with the walk around the crater.  There are such beautiful views in all directions.

One last picture of the Kerid Crater.  You can walk down to the water (beach?) but you cannot swim here!

After a relatively easy and fun day touring the Golden Circle, we went back to the apartment in Reykjavik and watched a couple more episodes of a show we started here in Iceland - the History Channel's Vikings series.  It's so good!  Skál!