Here is the photo set from my trip to the Gullfoss, Geysir and Kerið. The drive to Gullfoss was about two hours long. The highway out of Reykjavik goes through a flat lava field for few miles before driving through a mountain ridge down into the Haukadalur farming valley between the capital and the Þingvellir National Park.


The flat lava fields outside of Reykjavik, Iceland.


The fields aren't as flat as the look from far away. The lava is jagged but covered in lichen and moss. In areas where the lava is completely covered in green moss, the land looks like a golf course covered in short hills or moguls.


There are no billboards or overpasses so people have written graffiti in the moss on the hillsides that line the road.


This is near a geothermal power plant outside of Reykjavik. The pipes bring hot water and steam into the plant to turn turbines and generate electricity.


Kerið, the caldera of a volcanic crater an hour outside of Reykjavik. The red color of the soil comes from the large amount of iron in the area.


Concerts are held in the crater during the summer. The performers will be on a floating stage in the middle of the water and the audience will line the walls of the caldera.


Geysir erupting. There are several geysers within a few hundred meters of each other. The main geyser, Geysir (which is where the english word comes from) erupts every four or five minutes.


The water and steam from the geysers smells of sulfur and has a temperature of around 100°C


The gorge just downstream of Gullfoss.


Near the base of the falls.


The Gullfoss waterfall is at the edge of the central Icelandic highlands.


The Hvítá river is fed by glacial run-off from the highlands.


Gullfoss means "Golden Falls" in Icelandic. The yellowish color can be seen best at the threshold of the falls. The color comes from the sulfur in the rocks eroded by the water.


The waterfall enters the canyon below at a ninety degree angle. The rock wall opposite the falls traps the mist in. When the sun is out there is a permanent rainbow over the gorge.




There is a rock platform jutting out over the river as it approaches the falls.




Icelandic souvenirs in a gift shop near Geysir.