Iceland's Golden Circle - Gulfoss and the road along the way

October 17, 2016

The Golden circle has many beautiful views along the route.

Another view of Lake Þingvallavatn

Along the route, there were several locations where the Icelandic horse could be seen at fences along the side of the road. 

The Icelandic horse is a breed of horse developed in Iceland. Although the horses are small, at times pony-sized, most registries for the Icelandic refer to it as a horse

Icelandic horses are long-lived and hardy. In their native country, they have few diseases. Icelandic law prevents horses from being imported into the country and exported animals are not allowed to return

A blonde, a brunette and a red head, went into a field.....

The last attraction along the Golden Circle was Gulfoss (Golden Falls).  It is located in the canyon of the Hvítá (White) river which is fed by Iceland´s second biggest glacier, the Langjökull.  It is 105’ high and has 2 drops

The story of Gullfoss is as follows:

Sigríður Tómasdóttir, the daughter of Tómas Tómasson who owned the waterfall in the first half of the 20th century, lived at a farm nearby and loved Gullfoss as no one else.

At this period of time much speculation about using Gullfoss to harness electricity was going on. Foreign investors who rented Gullfoss indirectly from the owners wanted to build a hydroelectric powerplant, which would have changed and destroyed Gullfoss forever.

As the story goes it's thanks to Sigríður Tómasdóttir that we still can uplift ourself with the beauty of Gullfoss, because she was the one that protested so intensly against these plans by going as far to threat that she would throw herself into Gullfoss and therby kill herself.

To make her threat believable she went barefoot on a protest march from Gullfoss to Reykjavik. In those days the roads weren't paved and when she arrived after 120 kilometers her feet were bleeding and she was in very bad shape.

The people believed her and listened and the powerplant at Gullfoss was never built.

Today one can see the memorial site of Sigríður that decipts her profile at the top of the falls

On the way back, we came across another fissure which was located at the other end of Þingvellir National Park

 This is a pretty good view of the following:  As the plates moved apart, excessive eruptions of lava constructed volcanoes and filled rift valleys. Subsequent movement rifted these later lava fields, causing long, linear valleys bounded by parallel faults

At some places, the fissures seemed quite scary.  You couldn't see the bottom  - so it looked like you could fall in and possibly not come out!  It was really hard to photograph that and convey the feeling.

As the "golden hour" came upon us, the views of the Lake and surrounding area were stunning.

Had to collect the 3 layers of "Jesus Rays" for Claudia!  We shall have them in our pocket for when we need them!