Waterfalls and Volcanic Craters

The day started off quite early, not on purpose but because we finally got over the jet lag. We woke up in the 5 o'clock hour and started our day slowly by making it to the Brúarfoss trailhead. When we were planning our trip, there was only one trailhead for this hike, but just this summer a parking lot opened up right next to Brúarfoss. We decided to do the original hike which led us along the river which showcased a total of 3 different waterfalls. The trail was, according to AllTrails, a 4.2-mile hike with 1,500 ft of elevation gain. That elevation gain had us both worried because of how tired we felt after hiking Glymur Waterfall while being jet-lagged a few days prior. But AllTrails lied to us and this hike only had 250 feet of elevation gain (but still 4.2 miles). Having seen the 2 other waterfalls along the way, Hlauptungufoss and Miðfoss, we were glad we didn't just drive to the Brúarfoss parking lot. Since we started early, we hardly saw anyone and had Hlauptungufoss all to ourselves, and that waterfall was incredible. Miðfoss was a decent waterfall but not as far of a drop or as fast-moving. Brúarfoss was gorgeous and spread out, but I think I liked Hlauptungfoss the best, which is ranked based on beauty and lack of other people. Brúarfoss didn't have many people there, but it's not as special when you see someone drive up and walk over with almost no effort and take the same photo as you. The coolest part about this hike was how blue the water was. It was a crazy pretty blue color.

In the afternoon, we decided to go to the Kerid Crater, which is something we had planned to do later in our trip. We decided to stop there because we didn't have anything else planned for the day except a long 45-minute drive (one way) to Selfoss to go to the larger grocery chain store to get some cheaper food for the next few days where we were in a much more remote area. Kerid Crater wasn't anything special, but it was cool to learn about that kind of geology - where a volcanic eruption happened and then the crater collapsed in on itself sealing it back up and then filling with water creating a lake. The pictures were mediocre because of the lighting and because it wasn't all that exciting. But we hiked around that area and went a little north of the crater to find a bunch of lava rock. All sorts of different colors, sizes, and materials. Again, not something super exciting, but this wasn't anything like what we were used to, so we probably looked like over-enthusiastic tourists touching and holding the volcanic rock. But one other reason why we liked doing this was because we were mostly alone - just a few other people, despite being only a few hundred feet from the popular crater itself. It's crazy how many people come to do just one thing (like see the crater) and don't actually stop to appreciate the beauty of the surrounding area.

We're glad we did the Kerid Crater on this day instead of when we had it planned for later in the week. The day we had this planned out ended up being horrible “hurricane-force” winds and rain, so it wouldn’t have happened anyway. Additionally, we had a lot going on the day we were going to do it, so I feel like this makes it a little bit easier to do. I think flexibility in shifting around hikes really made this trip more enjoyable. Going grocery shopping on this day also wasn't planned out, but it was good to go to a large grocery store. We found more gluten-free food for Katie and it was a lot less expensive (although still very expensive by US standards) than any of the smaller grocery stores we have stopped at along the way. For just a few meals worth of food, we spent 12,000 ISK ($90).