Skogafoss, Fjadrargljufur Gorge, Svartifoss, Jokulsarlon - June 29,2011

We started our second day with a nice morning hike before breakfast.  Our hotel was close to Skogafoss which (as the story goes) has buried treasure in a cave behind the falls left by the first viking to come to Iceland.  We didn't see any treasure but hiked to the top and along the ridge wanting to always see what was around the next corner.  There are more than 20 waterfalls on this river but we only saw 5 of them on our hike.

Some of the other / secondary waterfalls on the river are shown in the pictures below.  The right picture in the second set below shows Skogafoss with the trail leading up.

After breakfast we set out for today's wonders.  We saw more glaciers off in the distance and a glacier fed river - betcha that is cold!  We also saw cute red roofed churches and farms nestled at the base of the mountains, and more beautiful countryside.

Our next stop for a hike to stretch the legs was at Fjadrargljufur Gorge.  What a pretty place.  We didn't actually hike in the gorge but along the top.  The gorge was quite deep with a slow meandering river at the bottom.  Once we got to the end with the waterfall, the kids thought it would make an excellent waterslide.  It was neat that the falls had this orange colour to the rock behind it.  We found a small stream with the same and it looks like it was some kind of moss or something growing that gave it it's orange colour.  The water in the pool at the bottom of the falls was a bright, crystal clear blue colour.  AMAZING!

On our way out we drove through old lava flow fields.  We had a quick stop at Kirkjugolfid (the Church Floor) which is made of basalt columns. 

We saw stunning countryside with every corner.

Ever the geek, Wayne wanted a shot of the black pumice sand drifting onto the road.  The roads in Iceland go forever and in some places are windy as a snake and in others run straight as an arrow.

Everywhere you looked there were waterfalls coming down the mountains and glaciers snaking down through the valleys.  It was truly an amazing place to see.

Our next hike was to Svartifoss; 5.0 km round trip.  It was well worth it even when it poured rain all the way back to the car.  The pictures below are of the kids taking a rest, our first view of the falls and the falls themselves.  The next set are the cool basalt columns at the falls.

The next set of pictures are of yet another glacier and a turf-roofed church.  It was so neat to see one up close; we had spotted some on our drive but this one we could walk right up to.

The last stop before going to the hotel was at Jokulsarlon (Glacial Lagoon).  What an awesome place!  We spent quite some time here and could have stayed longer.  It was fun to look for shapes in the icebergs, listen to the thunderous cracking as chunks broke off the glacier, and playing in the surges as the chunks fell in the water.  We saw a number of different ducks (harlequin duck and another that I didn't know) and a seal (only its nose and head as he poked out of the water) at the lagoon. 

On our way to the hotel it started to get foggy which made for some cool spooky pictures (or so the kids thought).  What an exhausting but truly amazing day.