Iceland Series

Day 2

our room looked out toward the ocean!

Annnnd we’re off once more. Upon checking out, we started to make our way on the Ring Road counterclockwise. Very quickly, the city dropped away, and it was just long stretches of barren land. A few kilometers away from the small town of Selfoss, we made a left onto Route 35 and proceeded northwest to cut back onto the Golden Circle. After about another 45 minutes through farmland, we made it to our first stop of the day.

Geysir and Strokkur

Geysir is very developed. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it definitely has a bit of a tourist trap kind of feel. (Which, really isn’t fair to it since it is free to go check out Geysir and Strokkur.) During peak season though, apparently it gets very, very crowded. When we went, there were a good number of people, but still relatively quiet. The English word ‘geyser’ is derived from Geysir, which comes from the Icelandic verb geysa, or ‘to gush’.

and off it goes

Calling it Geysir is somehwat of a misnomer, as the actual geyser ‘Geysir’ now only erupts several times a year. When it does, it can shoot up to 70 meters though. However, you’ll most likely get to see its small sibling Strokkur (Icelandic for ‘to churn’) erupt every 4 to 9 minutes at a still-impressive 15-20 meters. Fun fact: people realized that geysir activity is correlated with earthquakes, so there have been lots of actions taken to try to stimulate more eruptions, from digging trenches to lower the water table to just…pouring soap into it to clear the conduits. By the 1980s, it was agreed that this causes harm to the environment, so the practice of using soap has since stopped. Regardless, Geysir still holds one of the highest known geyser blasts in 2000, with an eruption of over 122 meters. Strokkur also at one point ceased activity after an earthquake blocked the opening, and people cleared the blockage by drilling through it, leading to its activity today. We actually don’t know that much about geysers and why they erupt frequently or not, as studying them requires getting things in literally boiling water. As written on Atlas Obscura, “if you can throw that much water up in the air, no one can tell you what to do.”

There is also a ‘Litli-geysir’ (or Little Geyser) that you can see from the pathway. It’s definitely little (and currently dormant. It just bubbles. blublublublub)

Photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0

In any case, Strokkur and Geysir are a short 5 minute walk from the parking lot, which contains the gift shop, a small cafe, restrooms, and the N1 gas station.

Gullfoss

Back on the road, we continue northeast along Route 35 for another 10 or so minutes before we arrive at Gullfoss (“Golden Falls”).

Food

Lodging