Reykjanes Peninsula and Golden Circle, 10 Aug 2026
This was the first day of traveling as a group. We piled into two vans and went out to the Reykjanes Peninsula to explore a lighthouse and a bridge across two tectonic plates, then did part of the Golden Circle, seeing a volcanic crater, a geyser, and a huge waterfall.
Our whole group of thirteen gathered for breakfast before we loaded up the vans and started driving west.
Reykjanes Peninsula
We spent the morning out on the Reykjanes Peninsula, which juts out to the west of Reykjavik. Our first stop was Gunnuhver Hot Springs where we got a good view of a steam vent. The original plan was to then drive to Reykjanesviti Lighthouse & Cliffs but, thus being a hiking group, people opted to walk there instead, then climb the stone staircase to the base of the lighthouse. While it’s not the original lighthouse, it’s the site of the first one in Iceland. From there, we got great views of the shore, as well as some rock islands which other people said they saw when their planes were landing.
We then walked back to the vans and proceeded to the Bridge Between Continents, which lets you cross between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. You can walk below the bridge too.
Once we were done going between North America and Europe, we hopped back into the vans and drove along the south side of the peninsula to Selfoss for lunch. After that, it was back into the vans.
Golden Circle
The afternoon was spent doing part of the Golden Circle. We would do the rest the next morning. Our first stop was at Kerið Crater, where we first walked around the rim. Then we went into the crater and walked around the shore of the lake that has formed inside the crater. There were quite a few people there, but not so many that it was hard to get around.
The next stop was the Geysir Geothermal Area. The geyser there, named Strokkur, which goes off quite a bit more often than Old Faithful in Yellowstone, but it is very quick, and you don’t know how high it is going to blow. The first time it went off, I was a little slow, but did get a photo of the steam that was billowing away afterwards. Before the next time, I moved to a different area where I got a clear view, and when it went off, I got several photos, but it ended up going up much higher than I expected, so I didn’t get the whole geyser. I did wait for a third eruption, but that one was only a few feet high. As I was going back, there was another large eruption. Go figure.
There were also mud pots and fumaroles in the area. Once again, this was a popular sight, so there were a lot of people wandering around, especially around Stokkur.
Our last stop was at Gullfoss waterfall, a two-tiered waterfall in the canyon of the Hvítá River. It is fed by glacial meltwater from Langjökull, Iceland’s second-largest glacier. There was certainly a lot of water going over the falls, and a lot of spray along the lower trail. We did that one first, which got us very close to the upper falls, but we could only see the top part of the lower falls. Because of all the mist, there were strong rainbows all along the way.
After doing the lower trail, we went up to the upper trail, which gave us a view from above, and we could see more of the lower falls in the canyon, but there was so much spray we couldn’t see where they actually landed.
Once we were all in the vans, we proceeded to Efstidalur for dinner and lodging. It is a farm that has been in the same family since the 1750s. In addition to dinner, we were able to get some gelato at an ice cream shop there. It had been a long enough day that we called it a night after that.
