Landmannalaugar
We went into the Highlands again for our last day this far North. It was the same area as the day before but went a little bit further to Landmannalaugar, the main place to camp in the Fjallaback Nature Preserve. We started early in the morning and after a 2-hour drive, we got to the trailhead around 9 am. The hike we had planned was to summit both Brennisteinsalda and Blahnukur, but we started with Brennisteinsalda first. It's recommended that you summit just one of three peaks in this area in a day, but we are crazy enough to have done two of them. The views were unbelievable. We had much sunnier weather today compared to yesterday, which is good because you need the sun and the clarity to get good photos of this area. The mountains were such interesting colors, everything from typical brown and green, but also oranges, reds, and blues. It felt like we were hiking in another world.
We summited Brennisteinsalda without any issues and decided we wanted to continue on to the summit of Blahnukur, which translates to Blue Mountain. It's named that because, well, it's blue. Not bright blue, but a blue-green-gray that's really funky. That one was a little more difficult to summit since we practically descended all the way down Brennisteinsalda before hiking back up to Blahnukur. But we had good adrenaline going which helped us through the entirety of the hike.
Between these mountains is a giant lava field from an eruption in 1477 which framed the valley between the two mountains. The perimeter of the lava field was much clearer from Blahnukur than Brennisteinsalda.
Blahnukur was directly behind the sun for most of the hike so even from Brennisteinsalda we didn’t get a great photo of it, but it was the tallest peak in the immediate area which made me happy to have summited it.
We returned to our hotel at the Panorama Glass Lodge for the last night. I was happy to have driven on road 26 between F26 and F225 for the last time. That section is 12km of the worst washboard road I've ever driven on. The first time we drove into the Panorama Glass Lodge we took this road and only went about 40km/hr on it and it was so incredibly bumpy that I was afraid an airbag would go off. The following day we took the road at 80km/hr and the bumps were manageable, but keeping traction was difficult. But the trick with the washboard roads is to go really fast on them. Every now and then, I would need to swerve to avoid large tire-popping rocks in the road which resulted in us nearly sliding off the road a few times because of the speeds we were going. But driving slowly just wasn’t an option because of the bumpy road.
Driving into the preserve was fun today with all the rain from the night before. There were large puddles in the road that I intentionally splashed through getting the whole car soaked a few times. At one point on the way back, we had the windows cracked and another car passing us splashed up water into our car, a dirty lesson that we need to keep the windows shut... Luckily it wasn't that bad since the window was only down about an inch.
7.67 mi
4.8 hrs
3,041 ft
2,316 ft
Through the Lava Field
Our hike started by walking through a lava field. It was a gorgeous terrain that then opened up into a valley where you could see the colorful mountains.
The Sheep in the Field
There were sheep grazing in the field. They don't know how good of a view they have...
The the First Summit
They had hand-painted signs leading the way to some of the paths.
Small People
You can see small people ascending the lower ridge right in the center of the photo. This area might not look very big from the photos, but these people give some perspective.
Looking Back
We took many breaks on the ascent up. The breaks allowed us to not only catch our breath but stop and admire to cool landscape.
Colorful Mountains
The mountains in the Highlands in Iceland were such unique colors. The lack of foliage made it so you could see every detail in the mountains.
The Lava Field
You can see the path we hiked in on towards the back-left of this photo. Being in the lava field and being above it are two very different views and experiences.
Summit of Brennisteinsalda
The summit of Brennisteinsalda gave us the same views that we were looking at the entire way up, but fully unobstructed from Brennisteinsalda itself. It was a gorgeous and windy summit.
Inaccessible Lake
There were several areas that were inaccessible, including this small lake.
Dangers Ahead
This sign was great. The trail was in such good condition that there wasn't any danger if you stayed on the trail. I would have loved to have gone exploring on my own in this area.
Steam Vents
There were several steam vents on this hike, including this one that you could walk quite close to. The vents smelled like sulfur.
Wooden Signs
We came across a wooden sign where we started following the yellow trail up to the summit of Blahnukur.
In the Valley
We crossed this valley and started ascending up Blahnukur.
Different Landscapes
Blahnukur and the surrounding mountains had very different landscapes. Blahnukur was a blue-gray material versus everything else being multi-colored.
Darker Soild of Blahnukur
As we ascended Blahnukur, the color difference in the solid because more apparent.
Switchbacks
We climbed up the ridge to summit Blahnukur. Every step we could see the summit getting closer.
Edge of the Lava Field
You could make out the lava field from the 1477 eruption quite well from the top of Blahnukur.
Colorful Rock
The name Blahnukur translates to "blue mountain". This rock is where it gets its name from. Unfortunately, the light wasn't hitting the mountain right for me to get a shot of the entire mountain like this. And although exaggerated in this location in particular, the whole mountain was this color.
