Iceland Day 3: Beautiful Hikes Galore

The goal today was less driving, so we stayed two nights at Skaftafell Campground (a place, by the way, that I highly recommend).

We drove one hour from the campground to do the Fjadrargljufur Hike. No, I didn't just press random things on the keyboard there. This was a 2-ish mile hike along a gorge that had been carved by a glacier once upon a time.

It is stunning. The entire canyon is covered in greens, reds, and yellows during the fall and the sound of the rapids and a few waterfalls echoed throughout in the most majestic and beautiful of ways.

To make the hike even more delightful, it started snowing! I (Cris) was in absolute heaven. The temps here are my favorite, being in the 30s and low 40s. The snow was very slight; one of those first snows where you have to squint just so to see that it's actually snow. I miss those snows, since they are almost nonexistent in South Carolina.

The entire hike was absolutely beautiful, and we just kept saying that that was probably 'the best thing we've seen in Iceland'....a sentence that we've repeated ad-nauseum ever since. 

Everything we have seen is just too stunning and beautiful for words to describe. You should come and visit and let your eyeballs soak in this beauty yourself. And make sure you check out this hike when you're here.

After that, we got more groceries and then headed back to the campground. There was a 4.5-ish mile hike at the campground that we wanted to do for the rest of the day.

The hike started out next to the campground. It was seriously the most picturesque autumnal day. I absolutely LOVE birch trees and they are perfection right now. Paul took this picture of me near the pretty trees, the road into the campground, and the mountains and glacier in the backdrop. 

The hike went pretty much straight up a mountain, and along the way, we drank in the views of a river and a series of waterfalls and the most intense of perfect autumn colors.

At about the 2 mile mark, we came across the midpoint where a bunch of hikes split off in different directions. This was also right next to another stunning waterfall. This one was super cool because it was surrounded by hexagon basalt stones due to science-y reasons that I've already forgotten. (Paul's note: lava cools, hexagons tesselate and make an efficient way for heat to release)

At this point, Paul got his typical energetic curiosity about one of the paths we were NOT planning on taking, so he went off to explore and I sat and admired the waterfall for a good 30 minutes. And then it started snowing again, so I was grinning from ear to ear. By the time Paul came back, I was actually cold since I was sitting so long with the snow. I love being cold, so that made me super happy.

We took about a bajillion ridiculously beautiful photos on this next stretch of the hike, but I'll spare you the photo-bombing and share just a few. The hike went to the top ridge of a mountain and then turned along a glacier. The combo of autumn colors and glaciers was...crazy-beautiful. I can't think of more words than 'beautiful' right now for describing everything in Iceland.

After gaping at the beauty all around us, we headed along a narrow trail back towards the campground and it went through the most stunning and gorgeous birch forest that I've ever seen. I told Paul that I was going to move to this forest and live here forever and ever. It was very magical.

By the time we finished the hike, we were exhausted and very happy. Paul made toasted pizza pockets for dinner and then we crashed into a blissful sleep.