Day 136-hiking Glýmur

   May 19-Our first few months in Iceland conditioned us to expect clouds, wind, precipitation, and/or cold temperatures.  This probably explains our overreaction to each day that dawns sunny and warm, even though these sorts of days are occurring with much more frequency these days.  In any event, it should come as no surprise that the blue skies that greeted us this morning quickly motivated us to get out of the house and take advantage of the nice day.

   We decided to hike the waterfall Glýmur, since it is relatively nearby and we had been interested in seeing it since we started reading about Iceland last year.  Despite its status as the highest waterfall in Iceland, it is not seen by most tourists, because the trail to the viewpoint can be somewhat difficult.  We got around for a serious hike and headed to Borgarnes to shop for bike helmets for the kids.  From there, we drove along the north coast of Hvalfjörður to the top of it and then further inland a short distance until we ran out of road at the trailhead.

   A group of four New Yorkers were coming off of the trail as we were preparing to head out and stopped to talk to us briefly.  They were quite friendly and even gave us some advice about the trail, so we would not make the mistakes that they had made.  They finished the conversation telling us that we would have no problems, since we hailed from the mountains of Colorado. 

   As it turns out, they might have been correct, since the hiking trail turned out to be half of the fun for the day.  After hiking up the valley a short distance, we needed to drop into a canyon to cross the river.  On one side this was accomplished by running the trail through a natural arch/cave.  The trail climbed the other side somewhat steeply, but probably not enough so to warrant the ropes that were strung along the trail for safety.

   The river crossing itself was a bit more exciting.  A log had been placed across the river and bolted down to rocks on either side, but had not been planed down to provide a flat walking surface.  Instead, a steel cable was stretched taut next to the log to provide some stability.  The cable swayed remarkably little and we all made it across both ways with little trouble. 

   At 660 feet in height, Glýmur is not particularly high from an international perspective.  The highest waterfalls in the world are over 3000 feet high and Yosemite Falls are 2400 feet tall, for instance.  An Icelandic friend of ours here is fond of saying, "everything is bigger in America," and that is certainly true in this case.  Nonetheless, Glýmur was quite impressive. We are glad that we got to visit it now, because the flow in the Botsná river dwindles during summer and apparently it can be just a trickle by the time fall rolls around.



Sally relaxing and bird-watching.



The river Botsná flows through the
canyon below Glýmur.  The white
specks are the numerous sea gulls that
nest in the cliff walls.



Sally and the kids in front of Botnsdalur and Hvalfjörður.



Springs like the water flowing from the crack in the rock here were ubiquitous



River water is still clean enough to freely drink over here.  Consequently, our Camelbaks are rather an oddity.



Whimperel



Brent Geese laying over in Iceland during their spring migration from Ireland to the Canadian Arctic.



The novelty of the horses had finally worn off and then the
foals started showing up!  This shot has it all: an Icelandic
horse and its foal in front of a sea gull and steam from a
geothermal vent shot in full sunlight at 9 pm!

   We got back to the car around suppertime and decided to head to Akranes to eat.  We were a little worried, since we have found that we tend to beat the supper rush if we eat by 7pm, but we got to the pizza restaurant an hour too late.  However, we turned out to be the only customers there, so we had no trouble getting our food in a timely manner. We left the restaurant after the kids’ bedtime and they started to nod off as their full stomachs and the effects of the strenuous 4-mile hike to the top of the waterfall began to get the best of them. We got home around 10pm and only got to see the Sun set when we got close to Bifröst, because the ridge of mountains to our west rose high enough to block it.