Glymur is Iceland's second tallest waterfall located in the west that falls 198m into a deep canyon below. It was the highest waterfall in Iceland for a long time but in pretty recent past the Morsarfoss waterfall took the crown, this waterfall was recently uncovered by a melting glacier.
This was not our first time hiking Glymur waterfall, we had done it in 2018 too but it was with poor weather and we were unable to cross the river due to too high water level. This time however the weather was great and we were able to cross the river! Let's get to the hike.
In total, the hike is 7.5km there and back but we made it a bit longer. It starts out pretty easy and on level ground but soon enough you reach the mountains and the te trail gets pretty rugged and steep. Here you can see the easy part of the trail.
After about km and a half, we reached the river that comes from the canyon. Basically, you need to follow it up to the mountains to reach the waterfall itself. There is a great viewpoint of the deep canyon. You can't see the waterfall from there yet. This is me in the photo.
If you look closely you can also see the log that goes over the river and you need to cross it. It can be underwater when the water is high, this time it was all good.
There is also a cool cave you need to go through in order to progress further on. This is a panorama photo, it's pretty wide and can't fit in one frame.
Here you can see the log that we needed to use to cross the river.
From here on the harder part of the trail starts because it's a steep climb up to the top. The more higher you go the better views you start to get of the canyon. Also, the Glymur waterfall itself is becoming visible.
Here you can also see two secondary waterfalls that flow into the same canyon.
We refilled our water bottles there. Icelandic has one of the cleanest waters in the world and you can drink almost anywhere in nature wherever you wish.
Here are more views of the canyon and the waterfall, it's a damn spectacular sight to see and is a bit scary to stand on the edge and see hundreds of meters straight down to the bottom.
Soon enough we were up there, I absolutely love this view, it's such a sight to see.
From here you basically need to cross the river by foot if you want to go back down from the other side. Keep in mind that the water is freezing cold.
We decided to hike a little bit further along the river and maybe we will find a thin section so we can use rocks to go over the river without needing to take off the boots. Also, those empty plains looked really beautiful.
Unfortunately, we didn't find a good place to cross the river without getting our boots off, it was still too deep. We had to get our taste of the freezing water.
Even the first time we visited Glymur waterfall, I really wanted to hike to the source of this river, named Hvalvatn Lake. This time I thought about it too but we were too short on time, unfortunately. It takes a couple of kilometers to go there but I don't think there is a proper trail that leads there, it's not a problem tho. Well, hopefully, some other time when we go to Iceland again we can hike there, almost no one goes there, I don't even find many photos on Google.
There is also a cool-looking waterfall back there named Hvalfell. I would love to see it close as well. Here is a photo of it from afar.
We just sat for about 10 minutes on the comfy Icelandic moss and stared into emptiness.
It was time to start going back. We were now on the other side of Glymur Waterfall. Here are some more cool shots of the waterfall and the canyon.
And some spectacular views hiking down the mountains again.
It is an absolutely amazing hike! If you are not afraid of the steep climbs and heights, you absolutely need to visit Glymur Waterfall, it's so worth it. I am sure I'm going back there the third time too at some point and then making the longer hike to the source of this river. It was quite a long post, I hope you made it to the end and enjoyed the virtual tour of this hike with me!
