The Golden Circle Tour – Iceland

On my second day in Reykjavik, I decided take the golden circle tour and stay one more night in the city. If you get the opportunity to travel here, there are several things you can do that are all within a few hours drive of the city. Since my friend and I decided we would drive the Ring Road around the country we thought we would just do a day trip from Reykjavik first before leaving the following day.

Street-scape in downtown Reykjavik

We spent a bit of time in the city since he had just arrived that morning and had not seen much of anything except the airport so soon after, we scheduled the Golden Circle tour. It mainly consists of three major sights all within a couple hours drive and our tour guide, an older native to Reykjavik, brought us to a few other unplanned stops along the way. We lucked out too because it was a sunny day and really not too cold (around 10 degrees Celsius).

Along the drive out from Reykjavik

Our first stop was Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park. We pulled up along an overlook of the park and as you can see in the photos, it is not only an overlook but also an area where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge actually surfaces.

Þingvellir National Park Overlook

Going back to the days in Geology class (as you might remember) the Mid-Atlantic Ridge actually runs through the middle of the Atlantic Ocean between the North and South American continental plate and the one connecting Africa and Europe. As it pulls apart along the ridgeline underwater, the trenches created have sections deeper than Everest is tall. Once it reaches Iceland however, it moves up above sea level and actually splits right through the country from the south-west of Iceland up through the north-east. You can see it in these pictures where the rocks divide apart.

A better shot showing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge running through Iceland

Looking up at the edge of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

As I traveled further along the Ring Road in the coming days, we came across more of these sections which were mostly in the northern part of the country which I have some better pictures. The two plates are actually pulling apart a few inches per year.

Driving thru Þingvellir National Park

Our next stop was the Gullfoss waterfall which means ‘golden falls’. Up to this point, it was the biggest waterfall I’d ever seen before and was amazing too because you can walk right up to the edge of the falls instead of having to see it from a distance. It may be hard to tell how immense the falls were but if you look off to the left where the rock juts out in this photo below you can see how small the people are compared to the waterfall itself. About 30 minutes after we arrived, the clouds broke and with the sun shining down, a rainbow shot up from the falls’ edge though it’s a bit hard to see in the photo.

The falls with the sun breaking through. You can see people standing off to the left on the rocks which gives a good reference to the size of the falls.

From the edge of the falls looking down through the canyon

Hiking up to the falls…

Just to prove I was actually here…

From there we traveled to Haukadalur which was an area of geothermal activity where there are geysers, hot springs and mud holes similar to what you would find in Yellowstone but a bit different.

Walking up to Haukadalur

Geothermal pool

The biggest geyser that is still active in Haukadalur is Strokkur which erupts every 5 to 10 minutes and is actually even higher than Yellowstone’s Old Faithful. Strokkur gets up to 70-80 meters while Old Faithful is between 25-55 meters.

Strokkur ‘Before’ – Taken up close

And Strokkur ‘After’ – Taken from a distance. You can see just how tall the geyser is from the people standing at the bottom. You are able to stand right up next to it like they were but you just can’t get a photo of it that close…

Hot springs

After leaving the Haukadalur area our driver brought us to the volcanic crater, Kerið, which was formed about 6,500 years ago.

Kerið Crater

For a bit of trivia, can anyone guess which famous singer is from Iceland? You’re too slow… it’s Björk (and the lady’s guesthouse I stayed with in Reykjavik is actually friends with her). Well… how cool is it that Björk actually put on a concert right here inside this crater not too long ago.   She was on a boat in the middle of the water and the walls surrounding the water were filled with fans for the concert. Yeah, a bit random but she staged it here mainly because of the acoustics it provided and I’m sure it was one crazy concert (even if you’re not a Björk  fan) because if nothing else, the mere atmosphere the place provided would have been cool.

Passing farm fields on the way back to Reykjavik

After leaving here, we headed back to Reykjavik after passing a few more spots on the way but all in all, it was a great day, especially since the weather held up the entire day.