It was Monday, May the 13th, and I was in Iceland. I had no grand plan as to what I was going to see in Iceland. I just wanted to see as much as I could in the little time that I had. So after a breakfast of lunchmeats and chocolate cake, I left the hotel to see what was out there armed with a map, a car, and a camera. My first stop was Þingvellir National Park. This is Iceland’s first national park. Parliament was there from 930 to 1798. Geographically, there are lots of cracks and faults from where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
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| Þingvallavatn |
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| Þingvellir National Park |
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| Me on a lava field |
My next stop was the Geysir Hot Springs Geothermal Area. Geysir was an extremely small version of Yellowstone. It didn’t take long to see. It is always interesting to see the Earth boil. Unlike Yellowstone, I was able to move on before I got tired of seeing another geyser. The area had a geyser, Strokkur, which erupted every 4 to 8 minutes.
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| Hot Springs |
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| Strokkur |
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| The landscape near Geysir |
I ate lunch at a cafeteria/grill at Geysir. There were not a whole lot of choices in places to eat. It was also safe since places with menus were written in Icelandic. From Geysir, I drove into the interior a ways on Highway 32. The area was pretty barren. It was quiet except for the wind. The wind was vicious.
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| Þjórsá River along Highway 32 |
After getting a feel for the non-icy interior, I headed towards the coast. My first stop was a waterfall called Seljalandsfoss. There are actually several waterfalls in the area. Seljalandsfoss is one of the more photographed ones. It is a waterfall that you can walk behind.
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| Seljalandsfoss |
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| Seljalandsfoss |
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| Seljalandsfoss |
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| Seljalandsfoss |
My next major stop was at a waterfall called Skogafoss. This waterfall drops almost 200 feet. I walked to the top of this waterfall. From the top of the falls, I wandered upstream to discover that there are a series of smaller waterfalls. They were quite impressive in the landscape. The wind was really howling here. I had a hard time staying still to be able to take pictures. My eyes would tear up looking through the viewfinder due to the wind.
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| Skogafoss |
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| Top of Skogafoss |
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| Top of Skogafoss |
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| One of the waterfalls above Skogafoss |
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| Another waterfall above Skogafoss |
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| Looking back towards Skogafoss and the Atlantic Ocean |
It was probably after 6 PM when I got back to the car. I still had plenty of daylight left. I’ll save the evening pictures for another post…
2 comments:
Beautiful scenery. Don't think I would like the wind.
Truly impressive waterfalls. I liked the rainbow that was in your close-ups of the first and the magnificence of the second. Mom
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