Golden Circle Tour

Wednesday, we had our tour of the Golden Circle, perhaps the most popular and famous tour in Iceland. We had Helgi as our tour guide again today. Our first stop was in the town of Hveragerði, a very seismically active town. At the small mall where we stopped to pick up lunch, a rift in the floor could be seen from a recent earthquake. Continuing on the Ring Road, we turned onto Route 35 just before Selfoss and shortly after stopped at our first sight for the day - Kerið crater.

The crater was formed about 6,500 years ago and is the northern end of a row of craters called Tjarnarhólar in the Grímsnes area.

The oval-shaped crater is 270 m long, 170 m wide, and 55 m deep, with the water depth varying from 7 to 14 m. This water in the crater is the water table - it is not primarily fed by rain and does not drain out, so the crater lake acts as a window to the groundwater.

Our next stop was the first waterfall of the day - Faxi. As we arrived at the parking area, Helgi told us this was the "small" one. It didn't seem that small to me. Although not particularly high, maybe 5 m or so, it was quite wide, spanning the width of the Tungufljót river. Although there was a trail down to the base of the falls, we didn't have time to run down there so we stopped at an overlook to view and take pictures of the falls.

We could see the salmon ladder built right next to the falls near where a few people had gone down to the base. After five minutes or so, we got back on the bus and headed to Gulfoss, the big one. Gullfoss, which means Golden Falls, is perhaps the most visited waterfall in Iceland. And for good reason - it was amazing. Comparable to Niagara in terms of size and power. We parked at the lower parking lot, which even here had a great view of the falls.

Since its actually two waterfalls, this provided a good opportunity to see both looking up the gorge.

Then we followed the trail down to the falls, where an rocky outcrop allows visitors to walk out in between the two tiers for an up-close view of the power of the falls.

It had started to rain, just drizzle really, but we were getting soaked from the mist. We walked around on the outcrop to see the falls from different views. The upper tier, which is an 11-m drop, is almost like a staircase with water bouncing down the rock stairs.

After the upper tier, the water cuts sharply to the right and plunges down the second tier, a 20-m drop into the ravine.

From a distance, it looks almost as if the water is falling directly into the earth.

But from close by, we could peer down the lower tier and see massive amounts of water plunging into the ravine below. The we headed to the upper area to view the falls from a platform above.

Helgi had pulled the bus around to the upper parking lot, where there was a restaurant, gift shop, and restrooms. When we were ready, we hopped back on the bus, heading to our next stop.  Helgi dropped us off near Geysir as it started to rain lightly. Geysir, from which the word geysir is derived, was the first geyser described in printed literature.

Unfortunately, it doesn't erupt much anymore. It may erupt once or twice a day, but didn't the day we visited.

We followed a trail past Geysir and saw Konungshver, a hot springs.

Past the springs, there was a trail leading up Laugafell Mountain. We passed another hot springs, Háihver, that was bubbling and had to climb a ladder to cross a fence before reaching the summit.

Up here, we had great views of the Geysir area and surrounding landscape.

Although Geysir doesn't erupt, nearby Strokkur erupts every couple of minutes, and we had a great view of the eruptions from atop the small mountain.

After a few minutes, however, it started to rain heavier. Knowing we had to go down a short but steep gravel trail and cross a ladder that could be slippery, we headed back down and got back to flatter terrain. We got a little closer to Strokkur, but by this time, it was raining heavily, so we hurried to the restaurant and gift shop across the street. We used the facilities and bought some drinks then got on the bus to eat our lunch and try to stay dry. Sandy had the bright idea to wear jeans today, so she was soaked and didn't dry out to quickly. I had worn hiking pants so I was dry in a couple minutes. Helgi told us that this heavy rain was unusual in Iceland, it was "like what we see in the movies." But definitely not unusual to us; this was more like the usual North Carolina downpour. After lunch, we headed to our last stop on the Golden Circle, Þingvellir National Park. Þingvellir is the site of the oldest parliament in Europe, established in the year 930. It is also the spot where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are separating and the rifts mark the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The rain had lightened up considerably and our first stop was near the Þingvallakirkja church.

Right at the parking area was Flosagjá rift, one of the main rifts in the area.

Just north of us, it split and the eastern rift is called Nikulásargjá.

When the rift was bridged in the early 20th century, it became popular to toss coins into the rift and the rift became known as Peningagjá or Money Rift. The water in these rifts was amazingly clear, even on a day with poor weather.

Just south of here is Silfra, a popular spot for diving in the rifts, something I'd definitely like to try if we come back. Walking past the rifts, we could see the church and to the west was Lögberg or Law Rock, the original assembly site of parliament.

Further to the distance, we could also see Öxarárfoss waterfall. We spent about 15 minutes here, before heading to another stop in the park. On a nicer day, the tour normally hikes between the sites, and I would have preferred to have hiked, but was voted down, so we drove. We parked at the Fræðslumiðstöð visitor center and walked out to the overlook Hakið.

From here we had really good views of Þingvallavatn lake and the landscape below.

There were also two rifts here, though they weren't filled with water like the others we had seen - Hestagjá and Almannagjá.

There was a trail from Hakið that led down through Almannagjá towards Lögberg, but a hole had developed between the trail and it was blocked off for safety reasons. When we were done here, we headed back to the hotel.  We walked over to White Knight for dinner and afterwards, it had completely stopped raining so Sandy and I decided to go for a hike. It was relatively early, around 730, and we had plenty of daylight left. From the hotel, we hiked towards Álafoss and continued on, running parallel to Route 1. At the roundabout, we turned right and stopped at a small parking area off Route 36. There was a sign here showing a map of the area and the trail leading up Helgafell, the small mountain right in front of us.

Although the mountain is only 216 m above sea level, it gains most of that in a short distance. The steep made for a good workout, even though it was short.

As we were ascending, a car pulled up and a small dog ran down the trail towards the car and his owner. Even the little dog was losing his footing on the trail. When we got to the top, we headed over to the actual summit and rested for a bit, enjoying the beautiful views over Mosfellsbær and Reykjavík in the distance.

There was a logbook to sign at the summit. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones from North Carolina! Then we headed back down and stopped in the pub at the hotel. We wanted to try some local drinks, so Sandy had a screwdriver with Reyka Vodka and I had a Gull, an Icelandic beer. The vodka was really good - made with glacier water purified through volcanic stone, or so they claim. But we really liked it and planned to get some from the duty free store when we left. I liked the Gull beer, a little light for my taste, but I always like to try the local beers when I'm traveling. After enjoying our drinks, we headed to bed.