Iceland Adventure, Day 2

Our Iceland adventure resumes with a trip to the Mid Atlantic Ridge, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. This is the fault line that causes the area to have such an abundance of earthquakes and volcanoes that act to constantly reshape the landscape....and delay every flight on that side of the world lately.

There are large areas directly on the fault line, where the earth has been literally split open.

Several of these areas have filled with crystal clear glacial runoff water. As the glacier melts, the water percolates through the porous volcanic soil and is naturally filtered to give the purest water you can imagine. You can always see the bottom of these wells, even on some that appear to be about 30 feet deep. I longed for my SCUBA gear, however the water would have been quite chilly.

the glacier in the distance on mount Esjan provides a constant runoff of pure water

Many areas of Iceland are covered with moss, as this is the only thing that can survive the cold, wet conditions.


Our next stop was to visit the Haukadalur valley to see the hot springs and some geysers. This park is home to the oldest known geyser in the world, Great Geysir (see video at bottom of post). It erupts about every 5 minutes, but is not very consistent. We stood in freezing rain long enough to see it erupt 3 times, then decided to get back inside after I finally caught a good, violent eruption on film, ahem, I mean flash memory. ;)

much akin to the Painted Pots in Yellowstone, the hot waters are home to lovely colors

Our next journey of the day was to visit the ice cap Langjokull, where we pushed the adventure to the extreme. Let's just say I was giddy like a little kid getting his first Tonka truck when I saw our tour guide arrive in this beast:

...we would later find out that we desperately needed every inch of those balloon tires and lifted suspension to get through the snow and ice. At times, the roads were so rutted and rough, it was easier to just take off on a random path across fresh snow. Here's a view of the "road" from the cab:

"It's very lonely at the top" is an expression that is quite fitting when you are on top of a glacier. The vast barren land can be disorienting as there are no landmarks for reference.

"When in Rome..." ...we decided to splurge for the snowmobile tour. The tour company had a warming station setup out in the middle of nowhere on the glacier with about 40 snowmobiles parked outside with keys in the ignition. I guess no one could actually get up here to steal them. Besides, you need a monster truck to even get there and there are not roads, just small stakes every 20 meters to mark the path.

Em is sporting Iceland's latest fashion apparel

I have the agility of a fully suited astronaut at this point; I am wearing a base layer, a wool sweater, a NorthFace coat, a sherpa vest, and a snowsuit.......and I am still struggling to stay warm. We had to frequently switch drivers because, even with 2 pairs of gloves, your hands quickly freeze when holding the handlebars.

Much to the chagrin of our tour guide, we ended up tipping the snowmobile over twice. The last one left Em with a nice black and blue souvenir on her leg.
Halfway through the snowmobile trip, we paused for a brief snowball fight with another couple in our group (there were only 4 of us and a guide...nice). This was followed by frolicking in the snow and just acting like schoolchildren on their first Snow Day.

Em just couldn't fight the urge to do the ever-so-popular Snow Angel

Our last stop of the day was to see Gullfoss: arguably one of the most interesting waterfalls ever created by nature. There are multiple falls that are stacked on top of one another and juxtaposed at acute angles, leading to a violent collision of water and rock. It was intriguing to try to trace the intricate path that each drop of water must make to get through these falls. The pictures do not even come close to doing them justice, you have to hear the force of the water and feel the cool spray of the mist to truly experience this place.

the mist from Gullfoss quickly freezes on the opposite bank to form a large ice overhang

Finally, we end with a video (below) of the Great Geysir (mentioned above)....you have to wait a little while into the video before the eruption occurs. I could have edited this out, but it does build the drama a little.....and besides, we stood soaking wet in the freezing rain to capture this, so you can now enjoy it in the comfort of your living room. ;)

....and I promise I will get the next Iceland blog post up a little faster than I did the first two!!

Iceland, Day 1

OK, we are again slow to get pics up....the next few installments of the blog will cover our trip to Iceland in March. Some think we are crazy to go to Iceland during the winter, but it is really not that cold (40 degrees most of the time we were there). The landscape ranged from the beautiful to bizarre, with all of it being quite surreal. There were many times when you almost felt like you could be on another planet. The small island has many natural wonders; we highly recommend a visit if you like to see nature at its best. Sure, you can see waterfalls, volcanoes, hot springs, black sand beaches, mountains, and glaciers in several other places in the world.....but this place packs them all into a small island that is easy to conquer in a few days and only a few hours of driving. The only thing it lacks is trees....now that we have become treehuggers in Portland, we kinda missed our arbors. :)

We started our trip in Seattle....because that's where the cheap flights are. Em was in Chicago for a Northwestern Alumni meeting on Friday and Saturday, so she flew from Chi-town to Seattle. I got in a great day of solo snowboarding on Saturday (they had new powder so I couldn't resist), went home to do a Clark Kent, then hit the road to Seattle. The 70 mph speed limits ensure a quick jaunt between the two cities. We met up late Saturday night with Jo and Clayton and crashed at their pad for the night.

We woke up the next morning to have brunch in Ballard with Jo and Clayton, check out the farmer's market, then scoot to the airport to almost miss our flight. Daylight Savings Time almost killed our trip; we had accounted for the time change, but our tickets didn't. The tickets said 4:30 so we thought we had plenty of time when we leisurely walked up to the gate at 3PM.....well, the tickets should have said 3:30 PM. Somehow they screwed up the time adjustment. Oh well, it is a good thing we were early. We basically walked right onto the plane. It's all good, I hate wasting my time in the terminal anyways.....let's get this show on the road.

7 hr direct flight Seattle to Iceland. Can't beat that!! Wake up the next morning, BAM!, you're in Reykjavik eating marinated cod and caviar for breakfast. This is how we roll.

Iceland sits on the mid-Atlantic ridge and has an ever-changing landscape due to the constant shifting of the tectonic plates. Couple this with melting glaciers in the spring, and you have a recipe for picture-perfect waterfalls. Our first day involved a trek along the south side of the island. Here are the major waterfalls:

Seljalandsfoss

Em hiking up a treacherous path to get a better view of Seljalandsfoss

Along the way, we saw some of the famous Icelandic horses....they were very beautiful, and I wish we could have gotten close enough to pet them because their fur looks very thick and soft.

There were a few farms scattered about the countryside....definitely few and far between. The entire country only has 300,000 inhabitants, and 200,000 of them live in the capital city of Reykjavik.

As the horizon stretched upwards, it seemed to be split between the land and the glacier above. At times it was hard to decipher whether you were looking at clouds in the sky or a glacier upon high.

As we approached Skogafoss, the mist coming off the falls created a perfect canvas for the sun to paint a rainbow. We couldn't have planned better conditions for this Kodak moment. Em wouldn't let me go diving in the ice-cold water for a chance at the pot o gold. Oh well.

Once again, we let our adventurous side get the better of us, so we decided to climb up for a better view. The trail dead-ended on a precipice with a thousand foot dropoff in each direction. I gotta admit, my knees got a little weak when I looked over each edge....the strong winds that day did not help the situation either.

I risked falling to certain death just to get this shot, so I hope you enjoy it! ;) Look at the people below for perspective of how high we climbed!!

We saw some sod houses along the countryside.....remember how I told you there are not a lot of trees?

We walked on the black sand at Reynisfjara Beach, which also had some amazing rock formations created from the volcanic activity.

columns of rock at Dyrholaey

The last stop of the day was Solheimajokull to visit the glacier. I only wish we had brought some crampons to further explore its vast beauty. We did find a few ice caves to crawl into and explore some natural ice sculptures.

inside an ice cave - the ice really is that blue!!

We got back to the hotel at dusk and decided to head downtown to grab some dinner and stroll around the capital city of Reykjavik. We were supposed to go see the Northern Lights at night, but our tour was canceled due to the overcast conditions. I didn't really notice it was overcast....guess I have been living in Portland too long.

Em downtown at dusk

There is a really serene lake in the middle of downtown with cottages perched all around and plenty of waterfowl; kind of like a Bob Ross painting, but without all the happy little trees.

....and that was just Day 1!!

(to be continued...)