The Golden Circle in Iceland looks quite magical in the Wintertime

I have written many a travel-blog about the Golden Circle, which is the most popular day tour in Iceland, visited by the majority of our foreign guests.

I visited the Golden Circle again on a very cold winter day when the days are very short and the temperatures are very low. On this particular day, the temperatures dropped down to -18 degrees C.

Top photo: Strokkur spouting

The massive Gullfoss waterfall was almost frozen solid

Fortunately, the weather was still and sunny for the major part of the day, as I showed you in my last travel-blog about the second stop on our visit, the Secret Lagoon by Flúðir.

The tour I joined was a 10-hour tour with an additional stop at the Secret Lagoon. My husband guides on Golden Circle tours for Bustravel from time to time, and they allow me to tag along just for the fun of it if the weather is good.

I have joined him on 3 Golden Circle tours and decided on writing about this tour as the sights looked amazing in the heavy snow, sunshine, and frost.

My husband and I at Kerið at sunrise on a very cold day in January

The main stops on the Golden Circle are the Kerið crater, the Geysir geothermal area, the Gullfoss waterfall, and Þingvellir national park, where you can see the tectonic plates above ground. Other locations can be added to the Golden Circle tour like Skálholt, Friðheimar, Faxi waterfall, and the Secret Lagoon.

Our first stop was at Kerið crater in Grímsnes, which was frozen solid. In the summertime the lake-filled volcanic crater, which was formed in a volcanic eruption some 6,500 years ago, is russet-colored. Now it was black and white.

Kerið crater at sunrise

It is possible to walk down to the lake in the summertime and walk along the rim around the crater, but as it was so much frost then the path down to the lake was too slippery.

Some people from our group actually walked on the rim, but it was very cold and windy, so I hurried back to the warm bus after taking a couple of photos.

This is what the Kerið crater looked like in August when I joined another Golden Circle tour

I was trying out my new phone, which is supposed to take very good photos, but it was too cold to take off the mittens, so I only took 3 photos before my fingers froze. 

In another travel-blog I am going to tell you about the monster in the lake, which tries to lure people into riding on its back with the only intention of drowning them in the lake.

The Secret Lagoon by Flúðir

Our next stop was at the Secret Lagoon, a lovely geothermal pool, which is one of Iceland's oldest swimming pools, dating back to 1891.

It was quite magical visiting the pool in such heavy frost and instead of dipping in the pool like everybody else on the bus did (apart from the Icelanders who thought it was too cold), I walked around and took photos, as I had never seen the Secret Lagoon look so beautiful.

The Secret Lagoon

Fortunately, I had brought my heavy camera with me so I didn't have to take my mittens off.

Everything - apart from the geothermal water in the lagoon - was frozen solid.

The geothermal steam from the geothermal area had created icicles on the railing around the geothermal area, which made it look like beautiful artwork.

Icicles on the railing all lit up by the rising sun - isn't this pretty :)

And when the sun came up and cast a golden hue on the steam and the surroundings a magical world appeared.

I was so mesmerized by this sight that I wrote another travel-blog just about the Secret Lagoon with many photos from this breathtaking day: A magical Winter Visit to the Secret Lagoon at Flúðir in South Iceland.

Strokkur spouting

After my fellow travellers had soaked for 1.5 hours in the Secret Lagoon it was time for our 3rd stop on the Golden Circle tour, the Geysir geothermal area. 

The old Geysir, which erupted some 60-80 meters in the air, is now dormant, but Strokkur took its place as the most popular sight in the geothermal area and spouts every 7 minutes or so.

Strokkur spouting

I had never in my life seen the Geysir geothermal area look as beautiful as on this very cold day. It was so cold and still that we couldn't see the geothermal water spouting in the air, only the massive steam which lingered in the air, creating a very magical sight.

We, who live in Reykjavík, are not used to still and frosty weather for such a long time as we experienced in the first month of the year.

What we are more used to is snow, then rain, then frost again, then thaw joined by a blizzard or two. But now the snow stayed and it was still and sunny so we could enjoy the ice formations at the geothermal area.

Frozen trees by Geysir - you can see the steam coming from Geysir hot spring in the background

So this was a first for me and I was spellbound by the surrounding beauty.

Knowing beforehand that it was going to be very cold, up to -18 degrees C, I dressed in layers, so much so that I could barely move :)

I had never experienced such low temperatures in Iceland and I was not going to freeze on this 10-hour tour. But I thoroughly enjoyed myself and created some beautiful memories to share on my travel-blog.

By Konungshver - King's hot spring dressed in so many layers that I could barely move

After taking in the beautiful sight of the Geysir geothermal area and having lunch at one of the restaurants at Geysir we headed for the next stop, Gullfoss - the Golden waterfall, which gives a name to the Golden Circle.

Gullfoss is Iceland's best-known waterfall and one of Iceland's most famous landmarks as is of course the Geysir geothermal area.

Gullfoss is a massive waterfall with two cascades, 11 and 21 meters high, located in the Hvítá river which comes straight from the second largest glacier in Iceland, Langjökull glacier.

The frozen version of Gullfoss waterfall

Here by Gullfoss waterfall, we are on the edge of the highland, and Gullfoss has been called the southern outpost of the highland.

Further on the Kjölur route, which is impassable in the wintertime, goes all the way to North Iceland. And there are some treasures to be found along the way, like Mt. Kerlingarfjöll and the Hveravellir geothermal area, which you can read about in other travel-blogs I have written:

The amazing Mt. Kerlingarfjöll, a fascinating Hike through Hveradalir, and the Kjölur Route

Hveravellir - the beautiful Oasis in the Highland of Iceland

The Golden waterfall

We could immediately feel that we were on the edge of the highland as the wind grew stronger, and in such low temperatures and adding on the windchill factor, our facial features froze.

From Gullfoss waterfall, there are guided tours to Langjökull glacier, which can be seen in the distance when you visit the waterfall. You can go snowmobiling and visit beautiful ice caves in Langjökull glacier.

Icebound Gullfoss waterfall and a small rainbow

The path leading down to the Gullfoss waterfall was closed as it gets too slippery in cold temperatures, so we admired the Gullfoss waterfall from the upper level.

It was breathtaking as always and I had never seen it as icebound as on this freezing winter day. The low angle of the sun lit up the canyon and cast a golden hue on the Golden waterfall, so it was true to its name.

I have written another travel-blog about Gullfoss, in which you can see photos of Gullfoss in all seasons, learn about Sigríður, the saviour of Gullfoss, the Lady in Gullfoss, and much more: The Majestic Gullfoss - Iceland's Golden Waterfall, which gives a Name to the Golden Circle

An Icelandic horse in its winter coat

After we had admired Gullfoss for a while we were glad to be able to warm up on the bus. The next stop though was only 5 minutes away. This was an extra stop just for fun.

My husband asked the people on the bus if they wanted to see Icelandic horses. The whole bus said yes :)

We, locals, have noticed how our foreign guests love the Icelandic horse and always want to stop and pet it and have a photo taken with the horses.

Sleek horse legs in winter clothing

The Icelandic horse is a descendant of the horses which the Vikings brought with them to Iceland, a sturdy little horse, which gets a thick winter coat in the wintertime.

There is only one place on the Golden Circle that I know of, where it is allowed to feed the horses. Here you can buy horse candy from the farmer which is safe for the horses, and the horses love this candy.

Feeding the horses anything else than the horse candy, although it is tempting, can be very dangerous for them. There are so many people now stopping to pet them and feed them whatever they have got in their pockets, unaware of the fact that the food can actually kill the horses.

An Icelandic horse in its winter coat 

Margeir Ingólfsson, the farmer at Brú farm in Bláskógabyggð, where we stopped, wrote an article in Bændablaðið - the Farmers' magazine urging people not to feed the horses anything else than this horse candy.

Approximately 30-40 buses and 200 rental cars, Margeir says, stop by the horses on a good day! The horses don't know what is good for them and eat what they are given, but you can just imagine the amount of junk food (for them) they will devour with all this amount of visitors, so don't be tempted to feed them anything else.

My husband feeding the horse some horse candy

Their digestive tract can get blocked by this food, which will lead to their death. And we for sure do not want to kill these cute horses.

We stopped at the parking lot by the road, which is right between Gullfoss and Geysir, and bought some horse candy which is for sale in a vending machine by the parking lot.

We just made a very short stop here, 10-15 minutes, but I think that everybody was happy with this additional stop. And the horses looked so beautiful all lit up by the golden rays of the setting sun. 

Almannagjá gorge in the Þingvellir national park

Now we were able to rest and warm up on the bus for half an hour before we reached our final destination on the Golden Circle tour, the national treasure of Iceland, the beautiful Þingvellir national park, Iceland's first national park.

Þingvellir national park is a Unesco World Heritage Site and here the Vikings established their parliament Alþingi in 930. It wasn't until 1798 that the parliament was moved from Þingvellir to Reykjavík.

Þingvellir has for sure witnessed some action through the ages, as here battles and duels were fought, Christianity was adopted and executions were carried out.

Lake Þingvallavatn, Iceland's largest lake

At Þingvellir you can see the tectonic plates above ground, which is a rare phenomenon indeed.

The North American and Eurasian tectonic plates part at the rate of approximately 2 cm annually, so Iceland is slowly getting bigger. In between these tectonic plates is the micro-tectonic plate Hreppaflekinn. You can read up on it on the website of Þingvellir.

We stopped at Hakið on the boundaries of the North American plates where there is an observation platform with a marvelous view of Þingvellir national park. And we had just enough time to walk down into Almannagjá gorge before the sun set.

Lake Þingvallavatn at sunset

The winter days in Iceland are short and we have to make the most of the little daylight we get, so this was perfect timing.

What a lovely day this was. We even extended the 10-hour tour to an 11-hour tour as we were having such a good time. Reykjavík is 50 km away from Þingvellir park, so we arrived back in the capital city just in time for dinner.

This is the tour I joined: Bustravel - Golden Circle Tour with the Secret Lagoon. 

Have a lovely time on the Golden Circle :)