Driving the Golden Circle: Thingvellir National Park

I’ve already linked this up and committed myself to getting in written…so if you’ve found it today, bear with me as the details continue to roll forth from my brain. I was writing fast and furious to get the other posts up!

Blue Lagoon: What to Expect
Iceland Overview: Land of Fire and Ice
Driving the Golden Circle Day 1: Snowmobiling
Reykjavik Off The Beaten Path
Iceland Volcano Hike to Fimmvörðuháls

GEYSIR
Geysir gives geysers their name and goes off every 15 minutes, which is very convenient for tour buses. Luckily for us we spent the night the hotel across the street, which meant getting there before the rest of the tourists…an actual shot without others in it is nearly impossible for most!Lots more to walk around and see besides this single geyser. In fact the information center had an amazing multimedia room with a plate you could step on and feel a simulated Earthquake along with tons of factoids that I’ve been sprinkling throughout these posts!

GULFOSS
Gulfoss is a beautiful waterfall, though it can’t in any way match the size of many others in Southern Iceland (just another reason I can’t wait to go back). It was again so windy we nearly couldn’t stay standing.

But hey you suck it up and just dig in so you can see it from all the angels because each one is incredible in it’s own right. From the path along side it you can feel the water rising up and really get a sense for it’s power and depth.While from above it’s just a majestic site to see the landscape of green pierced by a raging river and to know it’s coming from the big glacier we were just snowmobiling on the previous day.
Efstidalur Farm
Not a must see, but a fun little stop on your golden circle drive is this small farm which allows you to see the entire dairy process, from the cows to the making of the gelato they serve in some delectable flavors.
As we walked around in came a local mother with her two kids and by local I mean within an hours drive, followed by two men on Harleys and eventually another older couple who headed upstairs to enjoy the farm fresh ingredients for lunch.

To our dismay neither of us were hungry and so we explored, but then continued on our merry Golden Circle Adventure.

Laugarvatnsheller
David spent each night looking for intersting things we might want to check out the next day and thus he came upon a stop not in most guide books.

A bizarre little cave with a story.

In 1910 a young couple took up residence in the cave and lived here for 11 months. When they moved out another couple moved in and actually created a wall for the front of the cave, set up a kitchen and raised kids there!Super interesting story, but not a ton to see…which meant we did what we do best. We started climbing around and just enjoying the view.

Thingvellir Park
Þingvellir (Thingvellir) is the National Park was once again far more than we expected and to our great fortune the weather continued to be gorgeous, so we walked around for a few hours exploring the paths, waterfalls, beautiful views, church built in 1859.
Of course I also did what I do best…RUN!