Did we really do all this in one day?

Day 7

The morning began in Geysir, where you can find… a geysir.  Turns out that this particular geysir is what all the other geysirs in the world are named after.  It’s the original geysir!  Unfortunately, the actual geysir erupted regularly about 80m in the air (much taller than Old Faithful in Yellowstone) until the 1950s when tourists threw rocks in it and it became clogged.  Lame.  Now it doesn’t erupt very often, and when it does it only goes a few feet in the air.  There is another geysir, Stokkur, right next to Geysir and it erupts ever six minutes or so.  And let me tell you that one puts on a show!  Unlike Old Faithful, you an stand really close to Stokkur (I’m not sure this is a good thing….)  When it goes off, a huge bubble of steam pushes the top layer of water out and up.  At first, I thought it was going to explode sideways at me so I ran back a few feet as it redirected course and shot upwards.  So cool!

Emily pretending to be the Geysir

What is left of the original Geysir

After the visit to Geysir, Aidan and I drove to Gulfoss, Iceland’s most famous waterfall.  It was slated to become a hydroelectric plant in the 1920s when they dammed the Hvita river, but Sigridur Tomasdottir went to Reykjavik to protest.  She is regarded as Iceland’s first environmentalist, and is widely respected for her actions to save Gulfoss.  We are thankful that she did because the waterfall is magnificent!

In front of the Gulfoss waterfall

It drops 32m down into the ravine

Aidan was cold

From Gulfoss we continued to ϸingviller, a historical national park.  This is the site of the world’s first democratic government, created by the Vikins in 930 AD.  The site itself is located in the rift valley between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, which creates some dramatic scenery over land that is moving about 13mm every year.  ϸingviller was chosen for it’s relatively central locality in Iceland, so that representatives from all areas of the country could reach it.  It remained the central point of government in Iceland until 1843, when the members of parliament voted to move the meeting place to Reykjavik.

A river running through the rift valley

North America on my right, Europe on my left!

Aidan and the Icelandic flag

There were sundials all over Iceland!  I suppose they would
work well if it is summer.

ϸingvallavatn, Iceland’s largest lake

From ϸingviller, we drove over a mountain road to head northwest in the country. Our goal was to drive up to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, and explore some cool sites along the way.  We were looking for some lava tubes near Husafell, which though out of the way, sounded really fun to explore!  We drove over a mountain pass and made our first stop in Reykholt, home of Snorri Sturluson, a famous medieval historian.

Through the mountains

Sheep everywhere!

A beautiful church in Reykholt

Snorralaug (Snorri's Pool), where the historian Snorri came to bathe

We continued the drive to Husafell in search of the lava tubes, but a snowdrift over one of the mountain roads unfortunately blocked our way.  Late in the evening, we turned the car around and drove back the way we had come and then up to the very edge of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, where we could camp for the night and then explore the next day.

More mountain roads

Made it to the ocean!

The wilderness camping site