Hello! After our time in the Golden Circle, we headed south on Route 1, or the Ring Road. We drove to Vík, which is a beautiful small town with black sand beaches, and on the second day, continued all the way to the east part of Iceland to see the Glacier Lagoon. On the way, however, we kept seeing a variety of national parks to check out, and many of these we had never even heard of before, but thought we would give them a try!
Ironically, our first stop was Kerid, a volcanic crater lake we had heard about, but could not find it earlier when we were looking for it. Of course, shortly after we leave the cabin we find a sign for it along the side of the road. It did not disappoint! It is approximately 3,000 years old and actually contains red rocks instead of black rocks, which is common at other volcanic sites.
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These were the paths we used to later hike down into the crater. They don't look as impressive from this angle, but it was quite a hike!
During our trip, Jake has developed the hobby of collecting rocks. This was a common site at many of the parks we visited.
This is the view from the bottom of the crater.
Along the way to Vík, we stopped in the town of Selfoss for some lunch, and we saw in the tourist center that World Champion of Chess, Bobby Fischer, was actually buried in that town.
As we were driving we did see quite a few bikers and even a few skateboarders! This made me think of the scene in Walter Mitty where Ben Stiller is skateboarding in Iceland.
Our next spontaneous stop on the way to Vík was Seljalandsfoss, which is a waterfall that you can actually walk behind! This was a really cool experience!
The next waterfall we hiked to was the Gljufrabui waterfall. This one was also stunning, but required a bit more of a climb, and then you could peer over the cliff face to see the waterfall behind it. It was very cool!
This is what we hiked up! You probably can't tell from the photo, but there were protective chains along the way to help and to make it safer!
For dinner we stopped a local restaurant that was recommended by our host and it was so delicious! I had a veggie burger (which was outstanding!) and Jake tried the traditional Icelandic pizza, which he enjoyed very much!
After our meal, we headed out to check out the black sand beaches Iceland is known for. It was a little windy, but the coast was so beautiful! We were on the beach called Reynisfjara, but in the distance you could see the famous archway, Dyrholaey. We checked Dyrholaey out the next day, so there will be more on that later.
One of the cool parts about this beach were some of the rock structures, like the basalt columns that are pictured below.
Jake found some more cool rocks at the beach!
We did not actually write the word Iceland in the sand, but thought it would make for a great picture anyway!
This is the view of the basalt columns from inside the cave!
The view from on top some of the smaller basalt columns.
That is the end of part 1! I will say that Jake and I have been amazed by how diverse the natural wonders are in Iceland. To us, it seems like a variety of other destinations all in one! Hope you have a lovely day/evening!
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