Glymur of Hope

A quick stop at a nice little waterfall and hiking area, just to warm up the legs and try out the efficacy of the rain gear. Of course, it stopped raining as soon as we got all dudded out but that’s to be expected and part of the trickstery weather deities in Iceland.

But on to the main event — Glymur (pronounced “glimmer”) which is the word for booming or thunderous sound, from what we understand.

About a 30 minute hike in pretty easy terrain had us feeling confident. It was raining off and on but we were prepped with rain paints, rain hats, and rain coats (of course) and were very comfortable. Plenty of people around but not crowded.

We come up to a crest and see a canyon, our first glimpse at the river that embodies the falls. We drop down into an unbelievably steep crevice but realize that it’s not so bad — it’s just this:

Not sure if someone blasted through this or if it’s natural, but it was a terribly convenient way to descend to the canyon floor.

At this point, we saw an ominous situation ahead. The picture cannot do justice to the amount of water flowing. Water is powerful and it’s everywhere in this land.

We hemmed and hawed for a bit but cross we did.

Then came the ascent. Lots of ropes were handy and essential because everything was slippery and tricksy.

Now we’re starting to get closer with views hinting at something big and dramatic. Something more out of a movie than reality. We saw birds flying everywhere and noticed their nests in the walls of the cliffs we were climbing past.

A few more quick ascents and some fancy footwork and we get a beautiful view of Glymur. After the fact it was determined that it was worth all of the effort.

The trip back was easier because the rain let up as we were making our tricksy descents. At the river crossing we gave encouragement to some others who were having some of the same reservations that we had experienced and we hope that they had a safe trip as well.

Total time, about 2.5 hrs but it felt longer.