Glymur Foss & Oddaleid Trail

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July 13

Glymur Foss

Emilie and I woke up to our 31^st wedding anniversary and had breakfast at the hotel at 7:30 AM. Then again, the ION Adventure hotel is so isolated that breakfast at the hotel was really the only option. Fortunately, their restaurant did breakfast very well. Our group spent only one night here so we had our luggage ready for Backroads pickup from outside our room at 8:15 AM.

We were shuttled to what was described as a 3-mile “Adventure” hike to Glymur Foss (foss = waterfall), the second highest waterfall in Iceland. Only about half the Backroaders, including us, opted for this because there were to be some physical challenges along the trail.  The others opted for the less strenuous hike of the day. It was about an hour shuttle to the trailhead in Hvalfjorour. As always, the scenery along the way was beautiful.

The hike to Glymur Falls was as beautiful as any we had been on, and there were some physical challenges, but nothing really difficult. We were advised to wear head netting for bugs. I didn’t wear one, and others eventually took theirs off as it turned out to not be an issue. The trail went through a cool cave-like portal which framed the scenery nicely.

Once through the portal, and at about the halfway point we came to a fast-flowing river. Crossing required the use of a rope stretched taut across for balancing as we stepped across a slippery log and a series of slippery rocks. One of the two Backroads leaders with us on the hike acted as a go-between halfway across to assist. Amazingly nobody (by that, I mean Emilie) fell in the river.

Once we all got across, we marched on, and began to ascend high above the river, with gorgeous views.

Probably more challenging than the river crossing were some steep rocky sections of trail that required pulling ourselves up and along a rope set there by trail caretakers. There were definitely opportunities to fall hard, though nothing life threatening.

The steep sections led us to the final leg to getting up close to Glymur Falls. The 750-foot elevation hike was well rewarded with a truly amazing viewpoint of the 650-foot falls!!  These falls were considered the highest waterfall in Iceland until another was discovered in 2007. We hovered around this majestic spot for about 15 minutes, as nobody wanted to leave.

Shortly upon descent, Emilie took a fall and cut the palm of her hand pretty good. Our prepared Backroads leader bandaged her up and on we went. It was bruised for days.

Returning to cross the rapid river again we found it very crowded now.  We had to coordinate turns with other hikers on both sides so it took about twice as long to get across this time.  Our Backroads guide actually acted as the go-between for everybody crossing, not just us Backroaders.  To do this, he needed to stand in the water for proper footing, so he had no shoes on.  When he finally was able to come ashore with the rest of us his feet were quite red (COLD)! He was a real trooper to do that for everybody, and he loved every minute of it…a true Backroads guide.

When back, we took a short shuttle to lunch at Bjarteyarsandur sheep farm. Although a real working farm, this was upscale food.  The outstanding lunch included award winning farm-made cheese and vegetable soup, and of course, lamb. The owner of the farm served our Backroads group and gave a history and operational rundown of the family farm.

After lunch we shuttled about an hour to Husafell for a 2-mile Oddaleid Water Trail hike. This was a fairly simple hike along a small bit of the Hvita River.  The scenery was very different from the earlier hike as this was along the river’s edge most of the way.

The hike brought us to a bridge over the river which led to a small plane airstrip and tiny golf course!! Very odd.  Turns out, the hike ended not far from here at our hotel. The Backroads vans and our luggage were already there. The group was lodging here at the very nice Hotel Husafell for the next two nights.  We had a great dinner, and drinks at the hotel and then bed.

Next: Canyon Baths & Inside a Glacier