Iceland Day 4: Fimmvorduhals Trail

The plan for the day was simple: Hike the popular Fimmvorduhals (Fimmvörðuháls) Trail and chill around one of Iceland's most famous waterfalls, Skogafoss (Skógafoss). But, first order of business for me was to check the condition of the tire of my rental car. The previous night, I had accidentally hit a huge pothole while driving in rain at night. I was worried that might leave me with a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. Luckily in the morning, the tire turned out alright. The pressure remained just slightly lower than normal. *Phew* Relieved, we headed out to the trail head, which happens to be Skogafoss.

Fimmvorduhals Trail

The Fimmvorduhals Trail is one of Iceland's most popular trail and was highly recommended in the Lonely Planet travel guide. It is a very long trail. It runs about 24-30km from Skogar to Thosmork (Þórsmörk) (Source: http://www.volcanohuts.com/fimmvorduhals). It brings you from lush greenery and myriads of waterfalls to absolute desolation. The trail will cut in between two ice caps, Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull, Eyjafjallajökull being the famous volcano that brought the European airspace to its knees during the 2010 eruption. Of course, we didn't plan on completing the trail. We didn't have the time, nor the stamina (at least for me) to do it. The plan was to just reach the edge of the lava field, the boundary between the greens and desolation. I found this blog to be very useful in knowing what to expect: http://iceland.for91days.com/fimmvorduhals-skogar-to-fimmvorduskali/. Thanks to the pictures, I was won over by the beauty of all the waterfalls along the trail, and I was very eager to do the hike.

We did the hike on September 22nd. Such rebels we are. But of course, we only did the easy part just to enjoy the waterfalls.

The trail snakes in between two massive ice caps on the way to Thorsmork

The trail begins by ascending tortuous flights of stairs up Skogafoss. Luckily, this was the most difficult part of the trail. The ascent is steep and tiring, but it offers amazing views of the area as we get higher up. The rest of trail is pretty level, with very limited change in elevation.

Stairs leading up to the top of Skogafoss. This is the most difficult part of the trail (assuming you don't venture into the lava fields). It was tiring for me, but then again, I am out of shape. It's probably a stroll in the park for seasoned hikers.

This is at the top of Skogafoss. There, you'll be greeted with sights of cairns. These rock piles are supposed to bring good luck.

More rock piles at the top of the waterfall. The trail continues along the river that tumbles into Skogafoss.

Unfortunately for us, the weather did not cooperate that day. It was light rain throughout most of the morning when we did the hike. Initially, it was still bearable as we had some form of water resistant outer layer. However, the trail was wet and muddy at times. That being said, the trail is pretty clear and very well maintained most of the time, with mile/km? markers to guide us whenever the trail becomes ambiguous.

Trail marker. Always lookout for these whenever you are not sure where the trail should be. Rule of thumb is to walk near the river whenever possible.

The trail continues with impressive canyons, cascades and more waterfalls.

Did I say more waterfalls?

Yet more waterfalls

In California, certain trails bring you to a waterfall, where the waterfall is at the trail end as a reward for your hard work. Here, the waterfalls are just in your face everywhere along the trail! Each of them unique and beautiful in their own way. It's hard to stop and appreciate each one of them as there were just too many of them.

Something more relaxing for a change

The trail involves crossing some streams like this one, which made the experience even more fun!

We almost hit a dead end here. We felt the trail here was too muddy and dangerous (too close to the edge) to traverse. But luckily after some scouting around, we found an alternate trail!

From the alternate trail looking down.

Yet more waterfalls! Unfortunately the rain started to pick up and it was getting miserable.

We continued trudging along in the rain, until at one point we felt it was no longer worth the effort to go on. Furthermore, we didn't really have a good idea of how far away the lava fields were. So instead of feeling wet and miserable for another unknown amount of time (despite the awesome scenery), we decided to turn back.

Heading back. Facing the opposite direction gives a different perspective. At the top of the picture is the shoreline.

We stopped for a snack break. The rain subsided on the way back.

The trail was still very wet and muddy.

Just walking along the trail.

Checking out some mini falls again before heading down.

Right back at the top of the falls

Despite the rain and not reaching the planned destination, this still ranks among the best hikes I have ever done. I was just awestruck by the scenery, especially the waterfalls and the green vegetation. So green! The view could have been even better without the low hanging clouds. The clouds most likely shrouded the snow capped peaks of Eyjafjallajokull. However, I'm not complaining much as I felt the low hanging clouds gave the trail an overall sense of zen-like calm.

Overall, I don't find this trail (just the waterfall portions, before the lava field. It's a different ballgame altogether if you intend on doing the entire trail) to be extremely difficult. Even for non seasoned and out of shape hikers like me, I would still highly recommend checking out at least 2-3 waterfalls along the trail from the top of Skogafoss. Once you get past the stairs that lead up to the top of the falls, it's mostly light hiking. However, I highly recommend doing this trail with friends. When we did this trail, we only saw 3 other hikers. That was it. Most of the time, we had the entire place to ourselves. Since shit happens, you want to make sure you have someone right by you.