Iceland Day #3

I could go home today and be completely content. We saw so many amazing sites on the Golden Circle that I feel we can’t possibly see anything else as stunning as what we saw today.

First off, after three nights of a total of 12 hours of sleep, I slept ten hours last night. I missed the NBA final, I missed Keagan’s early morning celebrations, and I slept through the 0700 trash pick up steps from my open bedroom window. 

Our day began with Pingvellir National Park, an UNESCO World Heritage Site. This was the area first inhabited by Icelandic people. It was here we met a couple from Clarksville who live just a couple of miles from us! Small world!  

The Oxara River runs through the park and feeds Oxarafoss. This is one of 10,000 water falls in the country. You know how I was sick of rocks in Utah? I think I’m probably going to be done with waterfalls by the end of this trip. 

The park houses the fissure that separates the American and European tectonic plates. Many people choose to dive here in the crystal clear water. I looked the most forward to this site, and it was a bit of a disappointment. I expected big signage and to be able to straddle both plates. You could do that - under water. But on land it was a crack in the rock. 

This big hair is courtesy of humidity and no hair dryer. 

The Golden Circle took us to the geothermal area next where we found geysers and hot springs. 

Geysir is dormant, but its neighbor Stokkur erupts every five minutes. The online guide says it can shoot up as high as 1300 meters, but it’s rare to see anything of this magnitude. Can you believe it did just that within a minute of our arrival and SOAKED me! The wind carried that water beyond the roped safe zone, beyond the 100 yards I ran to avoid the fallout, and landed on my head! Keagan laughed at my misfortune. 

This is what I imagined seeing upon arrival. 

This is what I got - on top of me.

Lucky me! I smelled like sulphur the rest of the day. 

The Golden Circle was not done yet. Next, we hit the star of the route, Gullfoss, Golden Waterfall.

Then we headed back towards the city and stopped in Selfoss to see Kerid Volcanic Crater. It’s 6500 years old and made of an unusual red rock. We hiked the rim and took in the different views from every angle. 

We had Icelandic hotdogs for dinner at a kiosk a couple of blocks from our house. The lamb meat with crunchy fried onions and sweet mustard was nothing special. But don’t let the locals know I said that.