Randoms From Iceland

I'm going to wrap up my Icelandic adventures today by sharing a few snaps that we took in random places around Iceland. If you're into photography, the whole country is a photographer's dream. I am just an amateur with the camera, but if you know what you're doing behind the lens, you'll have a field day clicking away. I know that I certainly had fun pointing my camera in every direction possible while there! Warning: this post is going to be photo heavy because words really can't describe the beauty of Iceland.

After our visit to the Blue Lagoon, we decided to explore near our hotel for a bit and came upon a beautiful beach where the Grotta Lighthouse sits.

The water was dried up on most of the beach, but it was still quite a picturesque spot for a walk, or just to sit and admire the views.

There's some amazing wildlife that you're going to come across during your travels across the country. Aside from the gorgeous wild horses that Iceland is known for, we also saw many free-roaming sheep and lots of different birds, like this cute little oystercatcher who let me take a few pics of him resting on a rock before flying away.

You'll find lots of charming red roof churches sprinkled across the country.

My girls got a kick out of their potty signs. We saw the "no pooping" sign outside of the camping area near Skogafoss and the fancy men's and women's toilet signs on some portable potties outside of the Seljalandsfoss waterfall.

Mariah also thought it was funny coming across a road sign pointing to Hella. Because, you know, Iceland is "hella" cool.

The Icelandic countryside though is the real draw. I believe the population of Iceland is only around 350,000, so there's nothing but splendid isolation all around.

Most of our day was spent in fog and drizzle, but that didn't make Iceland any less beautiful. If anything, it shrouded it in a bit of mystery, begging for us to come back some day to spend more time exploring this amazing little country.

What do you think? Is Iceland a place you'd like to visit some day?

Icelandic Horses

I'm convinced that in addition to some of the most beautiful people on earth, Iceland also has the most beautiful horses. I had heard that we would see free-roaming horses on our visit, but I don't think I was prepared for how many we would actually spot. As we set off on our early morning travels, the sun was just starting to push through the 3am rain and fog, giving us glimpses of wild horse silhouettes in the rolling hills. While the girls napped in the back seat, I would get excited every time we'd spot some in the distance while praying the weather would clear up a bit as the day went on so we could really get a good look at these beauties. Thankfully, my prayers were answered and we spent a good part of our Icelandic travels stopping to marvel at these beautiful creatures.

Because of selective breeding, the natives are very proud of and protective of their horses. The horses are said to have arrived with the first Nordic settlers between 860 and 935 AD, and in order to keep the breed pure, no other horses are allowed to be imported to the land. Also, a horse may be exported, but once it leaves it is no longer allowed to return. This ensures that the breed stays pure, strong and thriving.

You should also know that it's considered an insult to refer to the horses as "ponies", so be sure not to make that faux pas while in Iceland.

Towards the end of our trip, we did see a pack of 5 wild horses along the side of the road. We found a safe shoulder to pull over to see if we could give them a little pet. I'm going to be honest here and state that I'm not entirely sure if this is legal to do. If you pull off the road, make sure it's in a safe, designated parking area. Also, touch the horses at your own risk. Some of the horses could bite or kick, even though the pack that we found were mostly friendly and almost demanded head scratches and pats.

With the exception of this guy who was quite timid and didn't want anything to do with us. He stood in the background while his buddies soaked up all of the attention. He didn't mind posing for a few snaps though.

If you love horses as much as I do, make sure you put Iceland on your travel bucket list. Seeing these horses run wild and free there is quite breathtaking and magical. It's something you'll remember for a lifetime.

Have you ever seen horses out in the wild?

Iceland's Gullfoss and Skogafoss

I'm wrapping up my Icelandic waterfall posts today by showing you two more of my favorites that we came across on our trek across the lower region of Iceland. I didn't take too many pictures of either of these stops, but that doesn't mean that they aren't incredibly impressive in person. I was just really tired and ready to head home by the time we reached these stops on our itinerary.

Skogafoss is one of the largest waterfalls in Iceland, and arguably one of the most beautiful that I had seen there. It measures at 82 feet with a 200 foot drop. On clear, sunny days you can usually find a rainbow (or even a double) because of its consistent spray.

A fun tidbit about this waterfall. It's said that the first Viking settler buried a treasure in a cave behind the waterfall. The story has it that the locals found the chest, but were only able to hold on to its ring before the chest vanished back into the water. The ring was donated to the church, and now that church door ring sits in the Skogar museum.

If Skogafoss looks familiar to you, it's been in several hit television shows and movies, such as Game of Thrones and Thor.

When we arrived, we noticed that this is a popular spot for camping. Even though it was really cold, there were tons of tents lined up where the gravel meets the grass. I imagine you can get an amazing night's sleep listening to the rush of this waterfall. If we get back to Iceland some day, I am totally camping overnight here!

I also wanted to give you a glimpse of Gullfoss waterfall.

This waterfall is located on the Golden Circle route, so it's one of the most visited waterfalls in Iceland. It was definitely crowded when we arrived, but it was our last stop of our trip, so that was to be expected.

The way the waterfall is spread out, it appears to drop into an abyss, but in reality it's only a modest 105 foot drop. To me though, it felt massive standing there looking at it in person! If you can see the silhouettes of the other visitors we encountered that day, they got to the viewing platform by following a nicely paved pathway, making that viewing spot easily accessible. We didn't go that far ourselves, but I calculated that it's only a 5 to 10 minute walk to get to that point of the falls. I felt we saw enough of what Gullfoss had to offer by standing at the top of the lookout, but if you have the time, I'm sure it will be worth your while to make the trek down that way.

We saw 4 absolutely incredible waterfalls in under 18 hours in Iceland, and that barely scratches the surface of how many you'll see there. If you're thinking of going on a waterfall hunting adventure, I'm convinced there's no better place to do that than in Iceland!

Camping outside near a waterfall, yay or nay?

Hjalparfoss Double Waterfall

On my quest to find cool waterfalls, Iceland didn't disappoint. I read that there was going to be a double waterfall on our path and for sure wasn't missing the opportunity to see it!

The pair of waterfalls conjoin into a plunge pool that's surrounded by basalt rock formations. While it's a really neat set of falls, honestly, there's not much else to see surrounding the area, so we didn't spend more than 20 minutes on this stop. I suppose that was a good thing though because by the time we made it here, the wind and rain had started picking up a tad...

Y'all, that's not dandruff in my hair, but the rain was starting to turn to sleet and snow. In July. Yes, I wanted to cry because I am a hot weather girl.

Thankfully, this was one of our last stops of the day because at this point we were exhausted from cramming everything in to one full day and our clothes were soaked though. I was actually relieved there wasn't much of anything to see surrounding Hjalparfoss because I just wanted to crawl back into the heated car and pray my clothes would dry out before hitting up the airport. Shout out to my hubby though who endured little sleep to make this road trip a success for us girls ♥

Have you ever seen a double waterfall?

 

Iceland's Seljalandsfoss Waterfall

Our first Icelandic waterfall sighting wasn't what I had hoped for, but I wasn't giving up that easy. I had less than a day to get my sightseeing in, so I forced my family out of bed at 2am so we could hit the road and find as many waterfalls as we could before we had to return our rental car. Thankfully, Iceland offers about 20 hours of daylight in July, so we weren't fumbling our way through the country in the wee morning hours in pitch darkness. The first stop I had mapped out was to Seljalandsfoss, and y'all, this time I was not disappointed!

The thing that I love about Iceland is that it is so tourist friendly. You don't have to go on complicated hikes to see the most amazing sites in the country. Usually, you roll right up to the parking lot and you're exactly within view of the site you came to see. As soon as we turned onto the road where Seljalandsfoss waterfall was located, boom. We were looking right at it!

We arrived at about 3 am, so we ended up having the entire place all to ourselves. It was cold and raining, but that didn't stop us from getting out of the car to get an up close and personal view of the massive waterfall.

There were beautiful bridges and pathways to cross or climb for optimal waterfall viewing...

We just stuck to the gravel pathways though and were still able to get spectacular views.

We had just wrapped up a tour of Ireland, which really disappointed me with their sheep. I had visions of free roaming sheep all over the country, but we ended up seeing more cows than anything there lol. But what Ireland was lacking in the free roaming sheep department, Iceland more than made up for it. To my delight, this little trio of sheep were happily grazing on the foliage the whole time we were wandering the grounds.

Our first stop of the day at Seljalandsfoss was truly magical. It was the first time I've ever been that close to such a beautiful and powerful waterfall, I couldn't wait to see what the rest of our travels that day were doing to bring. Stay tuned. I can't wait to show you more of this amazing country!

What's the earliest time you've ever started a road trip?