Seriously, go look Gullfoss up on Wikipedia or Google Images (especially of those in the wintertime!!). My pictures do not do it ANY justice. It's a glacier waterfall, so the water is a murky color, for which it gets it's name from. There is also a story about a woman, Sigríður Tómasdóttir, walking all the way to Reykjavik in order to save this waterfall from being used to produce electricity like many of the other waterfalls in Iceland...
From here we went to Haukadalur, or the Golden Circle, where Geysir and Strokkur are located.
Geysir (from which the word "geyser" originates) has been extremely effected by tectonic activity over the years leading to periods when the watershed had to be manipulated by man-made ditches and soap for the geyser to erupt. Today, such efforts only happen on rare occasions and Geysir doesn't erupt. This is a natural process for any geyser--even the littlest of shifting can effect a geyser (or cause one), which makes them so important in studying earthquake prediction. Strokkur is the main attraction now in this particular geothermal spot as it erupts every 3-8 minutes.
There are also several other smaller geysers and pools in the area...
Also... if they tell you not to climb around Geysir (in my defense, the ropes barely came to my shins) it's because of these guys:
Boiling mud pots. Yaaay! (More of these later!) But look... rocks...
I like rocks.
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