1. Fjaðrárgljúfur
2. Vik, Víkurfjara black sand beach, Dyrhólaey, the Endless Black Beach
3. Skógafoss

It was now mid-afternoon on Day 10 of our 13 day trip, and our next stop was Fjaðrárgljúfur, a canyon located on the south-eastern side of Iceland just off Highway 1. The parking lot was full, so we parked along the side of the road along with a number of other cars and walked a short distance to the entrance.

The canyon has steep walls up to 100 m (330 ft) deep and is about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) long. It is about two million years old, dating back to the Ice Age. Fjaðrárgljúfur was created by erosion caused by flowing water from glaciers through the rocks over time. With the carpet of green grass all around, the rocky canyon stood out in contrast to the surrounding area.

It is possible to travel the canyon from the bottom, but requires more time and a willingness to get wet, so we just did the top route along with most other people.

From there we drove to the town of Vik, located almost an hour from the canyon. Sitting next to the sea, the small town has towering cliffs overlooking it. Although it has well under 1000 inhabitants, it is the largest village for 70km (43 mi) around. It is also the southernmost village in Iceland and has the warmest temperatures. On the day we visited it was quite sunny and pleasant.

The black sand beach is long and wide, and basalt sea stacks lie further in the distance. According to legend, the sea stacks are former trolls who tried to drag the local boats out to sea. The were caught by the morning sun and turned into pillars of basalt. Naturally the sea around them is quite dangerous.

After checking out the town, we drove about 10 minutes further down the road to Dyrhólaey viewpoint and lighthouse. This was one of my favourite places in the entire trip due to the dramatic views and the endless black sand beach. Yes, the official name is The Endless Black Beach and it was spectacular!

After seeing the viewpoints around the lighthouse and the pristine black sand beach to the west, we walked to the eastern side of the plateau and looked back towards Vik where we had come.

With time running out for us to get to our accommodation (and have something for dinner), we drove on to the west. Our last stop along the highway was a beautiful waterfall called Skógafoss.

There was ample parking in the extended lots nearby, and there were set-ups for campers as well. We saw groups of young people pitching tents not far from the falls and basic facilities were on site for those staying overnight. In spite of the festive atmosphere, the falls were not busy and easy to access.

Apparently there have been problems with people climbing all over since a Justin Bieber video was filmed there back in 2015, but on the day we visited the tourists were behaving themselves.

We finally arrived in Selfoss around 7 p.m. at night. We found a busy local pizza place to get a take-out dinner, though it took about an hour to get it and it was mediocre. But we were fine with it, as it had been a long but worthwhile day of travelling and we weren’t picky. We were now on the outskirts of the Golden Circle, with more sights to see on our final two days of exploration.