Iceland Selandjafoss & Skogafoss Waterfalls

Iceland Day 2 - You surely no how to not let a girl down!

After our first day in Iceland {read about it HERE if you missed it}, Tina and I were ready to hit the ground running for day 2! {Ok I'm not going to lie we were a little on the sleepy side, but we quickly discovered that miles of hiking each day would just leave us really ready for sleep each night!}


Our first intended stop of the day was Selandjafoss falls located in the Southern region of Iceland and right off of Route 1 that we were taking around the entire island. This waterfall drops over 60ft into the Seljalands River and has a small cave behind the falls that you can walk through. As Iceland would teach us though we can never drive straight to a destination because, well....Iceland! On our way we passed this huge green hill dotted with the shaggiest sheep I ever did see. We drove about 60 seconds further until they got the best of me and I turned around destined to get some amazing shots of these sheep up close! {little did I know is all I had to do was wait until evening time when they would frequently cross the road in front of me causing me to slam on my breaks multiple times!}

Selandjafoss Falls

Eventually though, we did make it to Selandjafoss and to say it didn't disappoint is an understatement! The falls were massive, the walk behind cave was absolutely unreal, the path leading to several other smaller falls was beautiful, and we were never happier with our full-body, waterproof outfits {check out these amazing pants & jacket here!} than after venturing through these falls!

Selandjafoss Falls

Next on our day 2 bucket list was Skogafoss falls {we quickly realized that the word foss in Icelandic meant falls...as we were to see a ton of them over the next week and a half!}, again located just off of Route 1 and incredibly easy to find. This waterfall was about the same size as the previous, but situated differently in that you could walk right up to the base {we did, as in boots in the river up to the base!} and climb a set of steps that took you right to the top {we did!}.

Skogafoss Falls
Though these waterfalls were magnificent though when we finished with Skogafoss we were done with falls for the time being! Today was the rainiest day we had in Iceland coupled with the cold and climbing behind, on top of, and in front of falls for several hours we were cold, wet, and hungry and couldn't wait to peel off our wet layers and dry off for a bit!

Skogafoss Falls
Not more than 30 minutes down the road though we stopped at our next marked location of Solheimajokull  Glacier having ZERO idea of what to expect. We found a parking lot. There were also some small cabins so we decided to investigate further. We quickly found out that the cabins were actually small offices that you could book hikes onto the glaciers, having not realized this though we were in not situation time wise to get in a glacier hike today AND get to our lodging for the night. Tina was even further crushed when I shared that I intended on doing a glacier hike after she flew back home. Now it was game on time. We talked to the guide for a bit and learned that they would also book us a hike for further east into Iceland (the direction we were traveling, so we quickly crunched some times and booked our tour for the following day.

Solheimajokull Glacier
Not to be defeated by Solheimajokull  Glacier though we walked past the little cabins for 15-20 minutes though, and guys...I SAW MY FIRST GLACIER! Like never in my life did I sit there and contemplate the existence of glaciers or where I might ever see one, but right there in front of me...a glacier...so I poked it, and then we left :)  {kind of like when I poked the pyramids in Egypt and one poke also wasn't enough there!}


30 minutes down the road we had every intention of checking out Dyrholaey as well. It was boasted to be this beautiful rock arch in the middle of the ocean, but sideways heavy rains, foggy conditions, and the cold had other plans for us. We squinted through the haze, checked out what we could see of the arch, and said next time Iceland!  Dinner that night at a local brewery {umm hello $20 for a burger and fries} never tasted so good as we sat in a warm pub surrounded by locals screaming at the World Cup game going on falling more in love with Iceland each day!

Dyrholaey Arch

That night we stayed near the small town of Edinborg in the cutest little single room cabin that I have ever seen, nestled at the foot of a small mountain, where Tina and I slept like babies!


Iceland's Golden Circle - Self Guided Tour


Oh Iceland, what have you done to me?! Who in their right mind leaves sunny 85º Ohio and heads to “summer” in Iceland with highs of 55º on a good day? I’m still not sure, but it only took 1 text from my Taiwan travel buddy Tina and a few hours in Iceland to convince me that I had most definitely made the right decision; this country is beyond captivating!!


Tina flew from Jersey and I from Ohio and we met bright and early around 8:30am at the Reykjavik airport in Iceland without a clue in the world what would come next! We grabbed our WiFi hotspot for the week from TraWireheaded to Sixt for our rental car, ran quickly into Bonus ( a local grocery chain) and we were on our way! Iceland Golden Circle, here we come!

The Golden Circle Iceland is a circular stretch of road around 3 hours long that is a popular tourist destination due to all the “Icelandic” things that lie along this loop including waterfalls, a geyser, continental faults, and much more. It is a common day trip for tourists who have only several hours as a layover in Iceland or whom don’t quite want to drive around the entire island (we defiantly had more than a couple of hours AND did drive the entire island...but still went for the Golden Circle as well!)


We were hardly 30 minutes outside of the city before we made our first impromptu, side of the road stop (1st of about 5,000 of these stops!) to see some Icelandic horses...little did we realize at the time that we wouldn’t be able to drive more than 20 minutes for the remainder of the trip without seeing more horses!


Horses aside, we made our way to Pingvellier National Park where we were greeted by large lava formations and an impressive continental divide that has created a small canyon through the middle of the rocks. We also checked out our first waterfall {Oxarafoss} of the trip (little did we know that this was only the first of 86 such falls that we would encounter over the next 10 days!). 

Our next stop around the circle was hiking to Brurfoss Waterfalls, I’m not sure if this is a common stop along the Golden Circle Route or not seeing as most other things were convenient “side of the road” type of stops and this was more of a “2.5 hour hike to the falls” type of stop. But, h.o.l.y m.o.l.y was it worth it {{I may have ended up with my boot in the mud up past my ankle, a sopping wet sock, and a Nikon camera lens face first in the mud…but lordy was it a fun time!}} On our hike back to the car we stopped by yet another field of horses for more pictures and imagine our surprise when 2 walked right up to us and let us pet them!!!


Our next pit stop included a late dinner in Haukadalur at the famous Stokkur Geyser along with of course watching the geyser shoot off several times, what a fun experience to watch! After a bit more driving our last stop was a 2-for-1 deal with checking out the Keio Crater along with experiencing our first night of Midnight Sun. The crater is a ginormous hole made from a magma chamber that collapsed and then filled with the bluest water I have ever seen! Midnight sun on the other had takes place in Iceland during the peak of summer when the sun doesn't set until 11pm and rises around 3am and leaves 4ish hours of dusk outside, never truly getting dark {{I didn't see it dark outside once during my 10 days in Iceland!}}. On this day we stopped at Keio Crater at 10:45pm and had no issues getting around or seeing anything!



A bit more driving for the night and we made it to our first VERY well deserved bed for the evening in Selfoss booked through AirBnB {click this link to save on your first stay with AirBnB}.

Day one in Iceland is officially in the books! Tired, sore, and ready for bed, but only with the happiest of minds!