Our second (and last) day in Iceland was spent visiting two waterfalls and driving for hours on end to get to the glacier lagoon.

It seems kind of crazy that you could spend a day visiting two waterfalls and driving for hours on end to see a lagoon chock full of glaciers and think it’s the most fun you’ve ever had.  It’s not like it’s high adventure or Disneyland-esque.  But there is something about Iceland that makes just seeing it such a huge treat.

Is it the light?  Is it the beauty?  Was it that awesome rental car we got? (ha!) Was it just that we were cherishing being together as a family?

The first place we visited bright and early (as bright and early as you can get in a place that never gets dark) was SELJALANDSFOSS.

 Doesn’t look that huge from far away right?  But see those tiny people below?

That kind of shows off how massive it is.

The cool thing about this waterfall is that we could walk under it.

Here they are ready to get wet under that thing:

 Going in:

 Under:

 And coming out the other side:

Hiking up out of it:

 Looking back:

Um, yeah, it was pretty cool…but I think partly you had to be there to get the power of it all.

So here are a couple videos to show the magnitude and sheer amount of water coming off that cliff and our family heading to traipse underneath it:


And here’s a clip from the other side:

We explored the smaller waterfalls nearby,

…did a little jumping:

…and a little pose how Lucy wanted to do it:

A wanna-be grumpy tourist:
And a family pretty in love with that spot:

We stopped for a little lunch at this fish and chip place we had read about in the guide book:

 This lady from New Zealand whips up some pretty tasty stuff there.

 It did not disappoint.

Next we headed to SKOGAFOSS.

Looks similar to Seljalandsfoss right?  But it was so cool because instead of going under this one we went to the top.  See those people way up there on the above photo in that railed in area?  That’s the very top.  Then there’s a group of people one level below too.

We climbed up this gorgeous hillside:

It was high.

This was the first vantage point:

(Can you make out that profile in that rock to the left up there…looks like a grumpy guy with a tall cap on watching the waterfall.)

 Elle with the grumpy guy:

 Me with my girl I didn’t want to ever let go:

And here’s the second vantage point way up at the tippy top:

There were white birds gliding around in the spray and it was just so beautiful and strangely peaceful even with such a roaring waterfall.

There is a place you can climb up and over a little ladder to get further up where the water came from…and there are another few waterfalls back there.

Sorry you’re enduring a LOT of pictures here, but with Grace and Elle and I all oohing and aahhing over every little things and trying to capture it all with two different cameras believe me these ones are just the tip of the iceberg of photos we took.  So fun for us to remember all this stuff through the photos (and Grace’s whiz-bang video that’s coming too).

Here we are going back down…

 Goodbye Skogafoss…we loved you.

From there we headed to JOKULSARLON glacier lagoon.

It was not close.

We drove across the whole bottom section of Iceland to get there.  But we had seen pictures and were dying to see it ourselves.  I’ll admit, a few hours into the drive Dave and I looked at each other and wondered if all this driving was really going to be worth it.

But from the minute we arrived we realized we would have driven two times that long to get this view, because what an amazing part of God’s creation to see all those giant icebergs shifting and floating…we saw one crack apart as they all eventually make their way off into the ocean from this lagoon where they come from the mountain.

I loved how some of them had black stripes from the mountains, some were quite vivid blue,

Some were carved up and under from all the water that has passed through.

 We watched for a while on one side of the lagoon…

Then drove to the other side to see how it looked from there…

 Even more blue.

We were kind of mesmerized waiting to see some action as they cracked and heaved to make their way to the ocean, but Lucy gave us the wrap-it-up call:

Ha!  So we packed back up and headed back to where we were going to stay next to the airport since our flight was first thing the next morning.

We stopped in this picturesque little town called VIK en route back to Reykjavik.

…where there is a black sand beach:

I think those rock formations below are called the three gnomes out in the water:

God is an incredible artist.

It was near midnight by the time we reached the hotel (still daylight though) to snuggle down to sleep before our early morning flight.

Oh man what a time that was.

We bid goodbye to that beautiful land…as well as the purple flowers (that even lined the runway!)

 …and headed on home.

Off to the next adventure:  project take-Elle-to-college.

We were extra grateful for every single minute we had with her there, and split up in Boston on our layover so Elle and I could head out on her summer school college adventure.

All about that back HERE.

Goodbye to gorgeous Iceland for now…we’ll be back!  Max is gonna love that place some day.  How we missed that kid!

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10 Comments

  1. God IS a beautiful artist, I love waterfalls and those look so beautiful and that black sand beach was pretty cool too. What a gorgeous place!

  2. I know I'll never have the opportunity to go to Iceland, so THANK YOU for give me a glimpse of this breathtaking country! Your pictures are amazing!

    As someone who values family pictures, your kids are extremely blessed to have an archive of sooo many amazing pictures to document their childhood/lives/activities. πŸ™‚

  3. looks so beautiful! makes me want to go! i really REALLY hope you'll tell us more about how on earth you guys packed such a small amount of stuff to go to europe. my family and i left for europe right when you published that post, and i was a liiiiitttle embarrassed by the 5 huge bags we took. do tell!!

  4. I never knew Iceland was a place I wanted to visit…..now I do! Thank you for sharing all your trips with us in such great detail. Loved all the pics and videos too:)

  5. Nice post. I was checking continuously this blog and I am impressed!
    Extremely helpful information specially the last part
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    particular information for a long time. Thank you and best of luck.

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