Laugarvatn, Iceland

The forecast looked good for today! We had our big excursion planned to the Golden Circle highlights: Gullfoss (waterfall), Strokkur (geyser) and Þingvellir National Park (continental drift). Gullfoss was at the top of my list so we headed there first.

Gullfoss is open 24/7, so we planned to be there for sunrise (9am). It’s more common for folks to visit the Golden Circle highlights on a long day trip from Reykjavík (about two hours away) so at 9am we had the falls pretty much to ourselves! Luckily the sun was poking out through the clouds to brighten our pics. There was good water flow what with all the recent rain. There’s several vantage points for pics, a couple which are in the mist shadow from the falls. Waterproof smart phones are excellent for these types of conditions. The lowest trail down to the falls was closed due to ice. Gullfoss is really cool to see, one of the top 10 visually impressive waterfalls in the world.

Next up was Geysir, about 30 minutes drive. There’s a single-lane bridge along the way, I could see that causing traffic congestion later in the day. At this early hour we were the only car on the road so we just drove through.

Geysir is home to the original geyser, in fact that’s where the word comes from. Geysir erupts infrequently nowadays, the last time was in 2016. Also in the park is Strokkur, which erupts up to 35m every seven minutes or so. This is also pretty cool to see. There’s a path leading up the hillside for different views. We saw five eruptions while we were there.

I had researched some fancy place for lunch (actually very close to our hotel) but we both had a hankering for Icelandic lamb soup so just ate at the cafeteria at Geysir. They also had a mushroom soup which Heather got. The lamb soup was so-so, not as good as the one at Seljalandsfoss.

We got through the single-lane bridge no problem, and drove on to Þingvellir. The road to the entrance passes through the national park with a speed limit of 50 km/h. It’s beautiful scenery, and also a UNESCO world heritage site.

I couldn’t find Þingvellir in the Parka parking app, when I asked it turns out they’re not part of it. That’s confusing to tourists. It was easy enough to pay at the machine though.

The first view Þingvellir (if you’ve parked at P1) is the path down between the walls representing the North American and Eurasia plates separating. It’s a unique sight. About 1km down the path is Öxarárfoss waterfall, tucked in behind the path. You can’t see or hear it until you turn around the bend, which is pretty cool.

The path then winds back towards the main entrance, and passes by Thingvallakirkja, the iconic church and summer residence of the Prime Minister. Last up is Silfra, where it’s possible to snorkel or dive between the plates. We took some pics of folks snorkeling and then called it a day. We were lucky that with all the rain we’ve had recently that we were able to have a nice day today.