June 12, 2019 (I've decided to start putting the date of the trip on each post. Sometimes it takes me months to get around to posting about a trip, and so when I come back to the post, it's hard to remember what season of the year, or even what year, we were somewhere.)
On our third day in Iceland, the ten of us went on a tour to what is called "The Golden Circle," a 186-mile scenic loop on the southwest side of the island. Here is what it looks like for most tourists:
Our savvy guide took us on a slightly different route, which meant we missed most of the crowds in the beginning AND had a better view of a volcanic basin and a lake. We began in Reykjavik and went clockwise:
And here is a map of Iceland for reference:
The initial part of the drive was pristine in its beauty and completely devoid of other tourists, although the Golden Circle is the most popular tourist drive in the country. We did see lots of tourists later in the day.
The road leaving Reykjavik was lined with lupine and yellow flowers:
After some time, we passed through three consecutive craters created by volcanoes--rugged lava rock splattered with lichen:
