Iceland: Hike from Hveragerði
Aug 18, 2014 20:53:20 GMT
Post by fumobici on Aug 18, 2014 20:53:20 GMT
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.
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.