Hiking to Glymur
Hiking to Glymur was one of my favorite things we did the entire time we were in Iceland, and that's a loaded statement because we did some pretty amazing stuff. The hike was so much fun and so scenic. Coming into the trail we were surrounded by mountains, pine trees, trees displaying all sorts of fall foliage, shrubs and more. The first part of the hike is relatively easy as you head towards the canyon. After about half a mile (?) we started to hear the rushing river below and we walked along a cliff edge before hiking down beside the river and as we were descending we hiked through a cool cave! We came to a river crossing which consisted of a bunch of big boulders and then a small "bridge" which is just a log across the rest of the river with a flimsy metal wire we could hold for support. If you fall you're definitely going to get soaking wet so I don't recommend this hike if you don't have good balance. Also, the log is only down in the late spring through early fall. You cannot cross the river during the late fall or wintertime. After crossing the river the trail got a little bit more difficult.We began a steep ascent up the side of the cliff/mountain and the trail had poles with rope to help us along our way. I found this incredibly useful and basically used my arm strength to pull myself up a lot of the side of the cliff which made traversing that section of the trail go by much faster than others who simply used the rope to slowly climb up. After this point it was just a lot of uphill. We hiked along the cliff edge and stopped once in awhile to admire Glymur from afar. The views once we got to the top were phenomenal. Straight ahead was Glymur and the canyon that the river ran through, to our right were more mountains with snowy caps peaking out and behind us was an amazing view of a little bay. You can keep hiking up until you're basically at the top of the waterfall but we decided our view at the main outlook was perfect and we had gotten close enough so we decided to hike back down the way we had come. Somewhere along the way, as we were busy chatting and mindlessly following the path, we got off the main trail. We found ourselves on a, for lack of a better word, road-thing, and after about .2 miles I realized we had strayed from the hiking trail. I figured out that the trail was up to the right so we had to bushwhack through tall grass and high step over little patches of shrubs until we finally got back to the main trail. At this point we encountered a group of tourists who thought the waterfall was a quick walk to an overlook. Another couple was talking to them and explained it was actually quite a hard hike and took about three hours round trip. The tourists were in everyday street clothes and most weren't wearing proper shoes (sparkly flats you'd wear to work or something) and none of them had water. The couple told us that instead of hiking back down the way they came, they went up the river above the waterfall, crossed it, then came back down the other side and that it was absolutely beautiful.
For more info on this hike go here.
I highly recommend this hike. It definitely will take some time, at least 2-3 hours depending on your pace and how long you decide to stay at the top and enjoy the view. I do recommend that you only do this hike if you're somewhat in shape. The uphills definitely had my heart pumping hard. If you're not in tip top shape don't exclude this hike, just give yourself a lot of time and bring a lot of water. You can definitely do it!
Glymur was formally known as the tallest waterfall in Iceland at 650 feet. But in recent years another waterfall has been discovered in the south of Iceland and is the result of a melting glacier, and it's also disputed if it really is taller than Glymur.