Day 4 – Golden Circle

Our road trip around Iceland begins and we started with the famous Golden Circle tourist route. Our first stop was Þingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. There were so many tourists compared to the last national park out west. This began our regular “hurry beat the tourists before they ruin our shots” routine.  The park had some interesting rock formations and two waterfalls, Drekkingarhylur and Öxarárfoss.

Our next stop was Geysir,  where you can see the ground smoke and erupt every 10-15 minutes. Neat to see but I’ve seen crazier geysers at Yellowstone National Park.

We had lunch at the cafeteria and checked out the gift shop, Geysir. Very nice and trendy but expensive stuff.

Gullfoss, a massive waterfall was the next stop. This waterfall took my breathe away. It was beautiful from all viewpoints, far, close and above. Although there were many tourists and a icy slope down, I was blown away by the magnitude and beauty of the falls.

Our last stop was Kerið, a volcanic crater lake.

It was quickly getting dark around 5-6pm and there are no road lights (only in the city). We quickly drove to Hestheimar, a horse farm and check into our cozy cottage for four.

Day 5 – South Coast

We started our morning looking at the icelandic horses in the farm. We didn’t have enough time for a ride but it was nice to see the horses up close.

Driving along the south coast, our first stop was Seljalandsfoss, the only waterfall in Iceland you can explore behind. It was a lot of fun even though our camera lenses got all fogged up. Dru got too close and drenched himself haha.

We stop by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which recently erupted in 2010 and took some pictures in the middle of the road.

We rushed to the next falls Skógafoss to beat the tour buses. It was nice but not as fun as the one you can go behind.

Rain started so we stopped for lunch at a gas station grill. The fish burger was satisfying. The rain and wind continued but it didn’t stop us from continuing our plans. Our next stop was to see Reynisdrangar basalt sea stacks seen from the Reynisfjara Beach.  The black sand beach with strong waves splashing the rocks was beautiful. The wind was crazy here and Hannah almost lost her camera cover! Too bad the weather wasn’t nicer but we made the best of it.

We headed to Dyrhólaey next to explore some crazy rock formations in the sea. No fences here… The wind could have blown me in. The sun started to gently peak behind the clouds. It was an amazing sight.

That night we stayed at another farm guesthouse called Vellir. We had the whole house to ourselves! It was basic but cozy.