What to see on the Ring Road in Iceland: Visit the Golden Circle first when Campervanning

The Golden Circle is a perfect intro to Iceland.  If you can only spend a day, it's the must do.

We arrived in Iceland.  We had our retrofitted SUV campervan.  We had landed at 6 AM and had visited the Reykjanes Peninsula.  We were ready to hit the Golden Circle, the must do for any Iceland visitor.  Also, a must do on the FIRST day for anyone planning a trip around the Ring Road leaving from Reykjavik.  We'll explain.

Heading clockwise around the Golden Circle is Mosfellskirkja.  A church and graveyard just outside Reykjavik, it's a beautiful spot to stop and take in the beginning sites.  (It's also a great place to pull off to take a quick nap on the first day.)  Just a few visitors and a small hiking path, it's worth the stop to see.

Next, we found ourselves at Pingvellir.  There is a park building with information, bathrooms, and this is an entrance to the National Park behind it.  As we were trying to get our footing, we missed really heading into the park.  It's on our return list.

We missed Pinvellir because we were on the hunt for waterfalls our first day.  Iceland did not disappoint.  We found ourselves at Bruarfoss, which was not marked on the planning map we had purchased.  You can hike to Bruarfoss, however, with the new construction, it is now an easy drive up to the entrance.  Well worth the stop to see the glacier blue water streaming down and over the rocks.  The water collapses in on itself in this very unique formation.

Next on the list is Geysir.  Thanks to geothermal conditions, Iceland has a geothermal field in which geysir's are going off and being created at the same time.  The path walks you among three different natural wonders.  The thermal field does smell heavily of sulfur, for those that do need the heads up.  It easy enough to navigate around the fields to avoid heavy impacts.   It's well worth the stop.

As we began to finish our first day, we made it to our goal destination.  Gullfoss is the most famous waterfall in Iceland, and an incredible site on the Golden Circle.  Visitors are able to walk along various paved paths to see the waterfall from different angles.  It is a very busy site, so try to go early in the morning or later in the evening, as we were able too.  It did help.  

However, we were almost over an hour outside of Reykjavik, it was 6 PM in Iceland, and 10 PM at home.  We had been up since 2 AM our time, and we were spent.  We camped right next to Geysir at a very comfortable spot with all the necessary needs.

We were awake by 5 am on day 2.

Not to waste a minute of travel, being fully rested and feeling much better, we headed to out to complete the circle.  Our first stop was Faxifoss.  This waterfall actually sits within a campground.  You can access it during the day, and camp overnight next to it if you make it to that point.  

Skaholt was next on the list, and we ended up going here twice.  When we arrive at 7 am, the church itself was not open.  We walked the grounds and ended up find a crypt beneath the church that we knew we had to come back for.  Skaholt was the seat of the Catholic faith as well as the Lutheran faith as Iceland made decisions between the regions.  It was a center for education, as well as death.  We found it held a rich history worth visiting.  When we returned two hours later, we met Axle, a wonderful Icelander who took time out of his morning to share history with us.  

We rounded out the Golden Circle with a trip to the Kerid Crater.  We headed there very early in the morning, which is highly recommended.  There is an amazing peace at the crater, that comes before the busses arrive with eager tourists.  The colors stand out brightly against the grays embedded in Iceland's landscape.  It's pool at the bottom of the crater was the only one we found like it on the island, giving it another point for uniqueness.  

In total, you could do the circle in one day if you started early enough.  As we started from touring the Reykjanes, we needed two.  However, it's well worth planning this way.  Having one day on the road in the campervan allowed us to get a little bit of a lens on what we may or may not need as we headed out onto the Ring Road for our adventure.  It was then it was decided we would have one last stop in Reykjavik before we left town.  

Next up:  Costco and the West of Iceland

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