Iceland and Greenland Day 4 - The Golden Circle

Today we continued exploring Iceland by visiting the Golden Circle. This is a trio of spectacular sites just a few hours' drive from Reykjavík. I have no idea why they call this the Golden Circle, as the sites are located more or less along a straight line. Regardless, our plan today was to hit these sites. 

We started with the furthest site and worked our way back toward Reykjavík. This meant our first stop was Gullfoss. Gullfoss is a waterfall located in the Hvita river canyon. The waterfall and the surrounding canyon are both really beautiful. We spent some time hiking around the various viewpoints to see the waterfall from different angles. 

Next, we visited the Geysir hot spring area. This area is home to the Great Geysir, which was the first geyser to appear in European literature. Today this geyser is extinct, but nearby the Strokkur geyser erupts every 6-10 minutes. All around the geyser, there are many bubbling and steaming pools of water. It is a very active thermal area. We watched the Strokkur geyser erupt and debated how it compared to Old Faithful. Both geysers are similar in height, but where the Strokkur geyser excels is that visitors are allowed to get right up close to the geyser, whereas with Old Faithful you are kept pretty far back. The closeness greatly enhances the experience here. However, the eruption of Strokkur only lasts a couple of seconds whereas Old Faithful will erupt for 1-2 minutes. Strokkur also has the edge in recharge time as it goes every 6-10 minutes (but the strength of the eruption varies) whereas Old Faithful erupts about once every 30 minutes. Ultimately we couldn’t decide which was better, but we enjoyed seeing this geyser. 

We spent some time exploring the hot springs area. There is a viewpoint up in the hills above the area we hiked up and enjoyed the view. Iceland is quite lovely this time of year. It was a mostly sunny day, and when the sun was shining it was warm enough to ditch our coats so we kept alternating between coats and no coats. It was also wildflower season - almost everywhere we looked was blanketed by beautiful wildflowers. It was quite lovely. 

A herd of Icelandic horses

We spent more time than we expected in the Geysir area. When we were about ready to leave we grabbed a quick lunch at the nearby gift shop. 

Then we headed to our last stop of the day - Þingvellir. This is the location where we came diving yesterday. Þingvellir is a national park. This is a beautiful and historic area. It is a national park for many reasons. Here you can see both the North American and European tectonic plates. It is also where the inhabitants of Iceland formed the first parliamentary government. It is also the site of much natural beauty. We were running somewhat short on time so we could only stop at a couple of points of interest. 

We started on the cliff that is the edge of the North American tectonic plate. Here we could see deep ravines that have been formed as the earth shifts and opens underneath. They are quite impressive. 

We climbed down from the cliffs and walked over to a nearby church. It is the most charming little church building next to a river and is surrounded by nature. It was lovely to stroll around. 

A gaggle of Greylag Geese

Then we walked to a charming little waterfall called Öxaráfoss. It is a great waterfall tucked away on the edge of the tectonic plate. The walk was a little longer than we expected so this ended up being our last stop for the day. We headed back to our car and drove to the airport to board a flight to our next destination - Greenland. 

The bugs weren't nearly as bad in the national park today, compared to yesterday. We really only wore the nets on the way to the waterfall and starting back. Once we got going heading out we could comfortably lose the head nets without fear of accidentally ingesting a flying insect. 

We were on a little prop plane with ~15 other people who were also heading to Greenland. The flight to Greenland took a little over 3 hours. I spent most of the flight looking out the window. For most of the flight we were above the clouds, but an hour into the flight the clouds opened and I could see the ocean below. As we flew over the open ocean. I saw an object below, at first, I thought it was a ship, but as we got closer I realized that no, it wasn’t a ship, it was an iceberg. 

Our flight left Iceland around 8pm. Because of the time change, we would land around 9:30 pm in Greenland. Even though we were flying fairly late in the evening it was bright as midday because of the midnight sun. In the Arctic, the sun doesn’t go down for long, if at all during the summer. 

Our destination was Ilulissat, Greenland, which is located on the west coast of Greenland. We flew over the entire country. As we neared the coast of Greenland the ocean was full of ice. Near the coast, the water and ice meet jagged mountains. Then we passed miles of mountains and valleys all covered in deep snow. On the far side of Greenland nearer to Ilulissat, the landscape was smooth ice and snow as far as I could see. 

We landed and disembarked. There wasn’t really immigration here, an airport worker glanced at our passport as we entered the airport. Our hotel, the Hotel Arctic, had a shuttle that picked us up from the airport and dropped us at the hotel. The hotel is only a few minutes from the airport, but everything is relatively close around here. Ilulissat is a small place. It is home to ~5,000 residents and ~3,000 sled dogs. 

The midnight sun was weird, even though it was getting late, it didn’t feel late at all. A big part of us wanted to explore, but we knew we would pay for it tomorrow. Fortunately, we had an amazing view of Disko Bay right from our hotel room. We could see all of the icebergs in the bay. I don’t think I will ever get over the view of the icebergs in this area. It is so cool. We explored the hotel a little bit before calling it a night.

The view from our hotel room