Þórsmörk
Today we took the bus to Thorsmork. The morning weather was rough, raining, and chilly, and we didn't know what we were in for. Since we were taking the bus, we didn't have many options for what to bring or when we could come back, so it was a little risky going out there with the potential for both of us to be wet, tired, and wanting to be back (but not having means to get back). Our bus ticket to get back was for 7:15 pm, which would get us back to Hella where we would stay the night at 10:15. We knew this was pretty late, but I don't think we fully thought it through when we booked it. The only other time the bus left was at 4 which didn't feel like enough time.
We have a car, but to get to Thorsmork requires multiple water crossings, at least one of which we absolutely could not do in our rental car. The bus left Hella at 8:30 am and got to Thorsmork at 10:30 am. By the time we got to Thorsmork, the weather was clearing up with almost no rain anymore. We think a lot of people must have canceled their bus bookings because of the weather since there were only a handful of people on the bus.
Our planned hike was about a 4.5 mile loop around some of the trails that start at the volcano huts. This area has many trails that all interconnect, so we were constantly checking the map to make sure we were on the right trail. About halfway through, we decided to make our loop about twice as long to go around Tindfjoll Mountain. Before making this fork the views were pretty good but nothing spectacular. Once we decided to extend our loop, the views got incredibly better. We got fantastic views of Rjupnafell Mountain which had incredibly steep switchbacks leading up to it. We joked that we would hike up it but we both knew we wouldn't since we were tired from a killer hike the day before. But as we reached the furthest point of the hike we got amazing views of the glacier. Truly incredible. We were both completely exhausted but we were so grateful that we did this loop because without it, this area wouldn't have been that cool.
We didn't encounter a ton of people on this hike. Not encountering many people makes any hike nicer, even when compared to the beautiful landscape we hiked yesterday in the Landmannalaugar area which was busy (but not packed) with people. There were just a handful of other like-minded people who went out of their way to hike the cool inaccessible stuff. We met 2 groups of Icelandic people who were all very nice, one of whom offered us some cashews and Brazilian nuts. These were the first nice native people we encountered here, not that everyone else was mean or rude, but a lot of who we’ve been interacting with were in touristy areas. But when you're out in the middle of nowhere having a shared experience with like-minded people it brings out the niceness in everyone.
Our hike ended at 3:50 pm, and we went to the bathroom very quickly and went over to the bus, even though we didn't have tickets for the 4:00 pm departure. Once everyone was on the bus, the bus driver confirmed that they would switch our tickets for us, which was very nice of them. If we couldn't have done that, we would have had to wait 3 hours at the small restaurant at the volcano huts before having a 3-hour bus ride back in the middle of the night. That was our original plan, but we're glad they were able to fit us in on the 4 o'clock departure. The 4 o'clock departure was an hour shorter because the route was more direct. All of those things made the day a little bit nicer.
The weather on this hike was nearly perfect. It was about 50-60 degrees the entire time, and not really that windy. There was one point a few hours into the hike when we got some misting and strong winds that were very cold and made the views hazy, but that only lasted for about 15 minutes. Otherwise, we had mostly cloudy skies which made for the best lighting conditions for the time of day we were there. Conditions towards Landmannalaugar where we were the past two days looked very rainy the entire time, which meant we didn't have good views looking in that direction, but we were grateful to have been there the day before with sunny weather instead of being there today with bad weather. We really lucked out with the weather today. It was forecasted to be raining all day but it hardly rained at all.
One of the unexpected things on this hike was that we came across a tröllkirkja which translates to troll church. It was in a cave on a particularly outcropping rock that I was photographing quite a bit, unknowing that there was a "church" up there. It was cute to find some troll stuff while at Thorsmork.





Elf Offering
There was an elf house right next to the bus stop at the volcano huts. Someone left an offering of an apple, a shot of something, and a condom.

Tufted Vetch
Like many of the hikes we went on in Iceland, there were plenty of wildflowers, including this Tufted Vetch.

Eyjafjallajökull
We got incredible views of both the Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull glaciers. This one is Eyjafjallajökull.

On the Edge
I think Katie was chicken for not going out further for a better photo.

Glacier
The glaciers in Iceland looked like mountains themselves. But that blue towering thing is a solid block of ice.

Two Places We've Been
You can hike from Landmannalaugar (where we were yesterday) to Þórsmörk. It's typically a few days backpacking trip since it's 30+ miles. But it was cool to be hiking on the other side of the mountain range getting different but similar views.

Moss Campion
Moss Campion was growing everywhere in Iceland.

In teh Brush
This was the first time we were really hiking through a brush area. Iceland doesn't have many brush or trees which is great for panoramic views, but it was a nice change of scenery than what we had been seeing.

Colorful Valley

Little Mushroom
This was the first of this kind of mushroom that we saw in Iceland. Most of the mushrooms we saw were all a different variety that wasn't nearly as colorful.

Black Riverbed
All the riverbeds in Iceland were black.

Lunch in the Mountains
We packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a lunch. We ate them as we decided to continue on instead of sticking to the original loop.


Picturesque Alcove
We came across a really neat alcove that felt like it could be from a movie (most of this area was like that though). The sun (although behind clouds) was directly behind it, so it didn't photograph well. but this area was super neat.

Selfie on the Hike
I had my phone with me, which is a rare occurrence on hikes. I figured it was easier to take a selfie with my phone than my camera.

Rjúpnafell
The mountain in the distance with the switchbacks on it is Rjúpnafell. The outcropping to the left that's a lot closer is where the tröllkirkja (Troll Church) is located.

Tröllkirkja
The cave in this mountain is the Tröllkirkja (Troll Church). We didn't go up to it, and good thing we didn't - seemed like there were important troll things happening in there.

Perfect Mushroom
Most of the mushrooms we saw were already dying or dead. This one seemed like it was still in great condition.

The Fork
We decided not to go to Rjúpnafell, which is the mountain pictured in this photo. Even with the killer elevation gain that you can see from the switchbacks in the photo, you would first descend down a valley before ascending back up to get the the base of the mountain. I'm sure that hike has unbelievable views, but that was out of scope for this hike.

Rock Climbing In Iceland
One steep portion of the trail required using your hands to get down. Katie is over exaggerating it here.

Descending
As we descended, we got different views of the valley and riverbed below. This is part of the river that we crossed in our river bus.

Green with Trees
The East face of Tindfjoll Mountain was covered in greenery.

Artic River Beauty
This wildflower is very similar to Fire Weed, which is a wildflower that we have a lot of in Colorado. I love the way the buts form a long slender tube before opening up into a small delicate flower.

Fully Descended
Once we fully descended, we walked along the river bed before going up and over a small saddle between two mountains to make it back to the bus stop. The Mýrdalsjökull Glacier was still visible in the distance.