August 23: Kerlingarfjoll

No rest for the weary — after completing the 4-day, 50 mile Laugavegur trek, we left the Reykjavík Campsite before 9:30 am and headed out on a full day of sightseeing and a short hike.  Our first visit of the day was to the city of Geysir, where you guessed it — we witnessed a geyser that erupts every 3 to 6 minutes and lasts all of 3 seconds. Yellowstone’s Old Faithful has nothing to fear as the geyser and Geysir pales in comparison. As our tour guide Matt stated, Iceland names its cities after its physical features so there was no surprise to find a powerful waterfall at Gullfoss.  This cascade of water had a few levels with a short drop at the top followed by a longer one with a huge powerful surge of water.

Our final stop was the highlight of the day as we visited Kerlingarfjoll, which reminded me of the breathtaking rainbow mountain at Landmannalaugar.  But, this magical place also had snow, glaciers, and geothermal wispy clouds emitting from various places on the mountain. The glacier fed stream/river that surrounded the bed of the mountain gave it the slight appearance of Horseshoe Bend in Page, Arizona.  We took a ton of pictures and videos at this amazing spot and will be sure to add a few more at sunrise tomorrow as we decided to spend the night at this special place.  Kerlingarfjoll is my favorite location that we have visited so far in Iceland — I think it’s going to be really tough to top this one.