Iceland: Hike from Hveragerði

[fumobici]

Yes that's how it's spelled. It's pronounced something like "khwehr-yuh-huhr-dee". The guest house owner says many English mouths often mangle it into "hurdy gurdy". Hveragerði is a little town about an hour east out of Reykjavik on local bus 51. Three or four bucks and you're there. Head north and start climbing from there. Wear good boots, the trail is rough/boggy/muddy/rocky in places.


On bus 51 from Reykjavik, we're going into those mountains.



The bus lets you out near the center of Hveragerði and from there you walk past stores restaurants, gas stations etc. but after a mile or so you are out of town and following a dirt road that ends at the trailhead. The scenery really begins before you even reach the trailhead.



Once past the trailhead with its little coffee and sandwich shack, which was still closed in late May, it's pretty steep. After a while this amazing waterfall comes into view across the valley. It's much larger than it looks in my photos.



We'll see it in different light a few hours coming down.



There aren't a lot of wildflowers to be seen here but I found these-



Once you gain a few hundred meters of elevation the trail levels out to rolling terrain. And damn nice terrain it is.



Steaming holes of gurgling mud, hissing steam and spouting steaming water are everywhere.







Yes people are bathing in the river. It is the temperature of a nice hot bath.



Yes, this stream was these colors.



I love the otherworldly dripping mineral deposition.





It's all quite spellbinding.



The snorkle-like thing in the middle was spitting steaming water out every couple of seconds.



Same pool, strange mineral formations. Look almost like segmented insect forms.



Long green plants grow in the hot water. Very green.






The head of the valley is beautiful in a surreal way.



All these amazing features have names I can neither remember nor pronounce.











Same waterfall, coming down.



River shining below.



Almost back down, looking south out at the Atlantic Ocean.



There you are, but minus the sweat, cold, flies, and sulferous aroma.

[Deleted]

That is bloody amazing, fumobici. Not many people get to make that trip, you are so lucky. I imagine the light was otherworldly, it looks dazzling in your shots. I'd miss trees, though.

[htmb]

Fantastic capture of the beauty of the place. That's quite an unusual place to hike.

[bjd]

Thanks for this, fumobici. My daughter is going to Iceland next week, so I have an idea of what she will see. Rather otherworldly -- they could have filmed Lord of the Rings here.

[Deleted]

It has regularly been suggested that both Iceland and Greenland are misnamed and should exchange names at the very least; this would seem to support that idea. Of course it's too late for all that, and I'm quite sure that Icelanders are quite proud to live in a place with such a challenging but distinctive name.

Fumobici, you have captured exactly what appeals to me about the idea of visiting this place which I have not yet managed to see -- the whole concept of "fire and ice." If Iceland were just cold rocks, it would have a certain appeal anyway, but when you add the steaming pools and hot streams, it all becomes fantastic (including in the original 'fantasy' sort of way). And even if the vegetation is not exactly what one would call lush, it gets a lot a help from the warm waters.

Of course, during one of the frequent volcanic eruptions, even though Iceland continues to be a fascinating place to visit (and in fact the spectacle of nature becomes even more amazing), the idea of living there loses a lot of its appeal, especially when small towns have to be abandoned due to being buried in ash or invaded by lava. I find that living in such conditions helps to explain the peculiar nature of Bjork's music, too.

[bixaorellana]

Echoing the comments above & saying thanks for these wonderful views.

Apologies if you covered this elsewhere, but did you do the ring road? You were obviously prepared to go hiking & I'd love to see more of what you saw in that fascinating country.

[Deleted]

Iceland is where they film a great deal of Game of Thrones.

[mossie]

Took my breath away, a fantastic place. And a really super set of photos to show it off.

[lugg]

Wonderful landscape and wonderful photos Fumobici, the mineral formations are quite "alien-like" like in places. The walk looks like a long slow climb - is that correct or was it much steeper than I imagine?

[fumobici]

Long and slow describes the hike pretty well, there were seniors and children at the top so anyone fit can certainly make the distance.

[lugg]

Thank you Fumobici- it looks like a very enjoyable walk then

[nycgirl]

What an amazing place. I especially love the colorful shots of mineral-rich waters.

[Kimby]

So sad that the image links are all broken, fumobici, but your word-pictures are almost evocative enough to paint the pictures in my mind!

[lagatta]

Thanks a lot! My lack of interest in visiting Iceland in no way means that it is not a worthy destination.

I have been pretty far north, at the far northern end of Québec (Nunavik). And I have a cousin who works in Nunavut (Baffin Island).