Two days in Porsmork and then a restful day in Hella

There are so many highlights of our trip here. Our time in Porsmork is definitely one of them. We are coming back next week with my parents. Steve suggested we should come again beforehand, a great idea.

We took the bus here on Thursday morning and went on a hike across to the other road and up to a canyon. In total it was 10 miles. The hike was quite easy, mostly road, except the cross over to the other camp and the canyon itself.

The tricky part of the walk is that there are multiple water crossings. Many are small and you can find stones to hop across. Two have bridges which are great.

There are two however that don’t. We hem and haw and consider the options of taking off shoes and weathering the sharp rocks or wading in shoes and then having wet socks and shoes. If you’re lucky, or slow enough during deliberations, a car will come along and give you a ride across the river. If you have a 2 year old with you, they’re even more likely to help. On the two crossings there, we got help.

The canyon was beautiful. We wandered up a while, and then Sage and I hung out and threw rocks in the stream while Steve waded up the canyon further in the river.

On the way back there was noone at the first river, so we just hiked up our pants and waded across in our shoes. It was cold, but not too bad and our feet warmed quickly afterwards, even though they were wet. At the last crossing we got help again, which was nice because that river was especially forceful.

Everywhere you look is beautiful here. The road goes along through the valley with mountains and glaciers and waterfalls all around. What a beautiful area!

Back at Volcano Huts we went to the lodge for dinner and then to bed.

Sage figured out how to flip her tent upside down while she’s in it… She thinks its hilarious.

Yesterday morning we had breakfast and made plans for hiking today. It was windy but not raining. Still it was tough to motivate ourselves to go. Once out, we were glad we did.

First we hiked up to the top of Valhanuker. It is a short and close hike, but steep the whole way. The views were amazing at the top.

There are lots of edible wild berries here. A favorite are a blueberry that looks and tastes similar to blueberries from the store. Steve and Sage love them.

From there we hiked down to the Langidalur hut (not to be confused with the Laugavegur hike to Landmannalaugar, which starts at the Langidalur hut). We had lunch, changed a diaper and did the red loop, which we had done before. This time we did it in the other direction. It was just as beautiful as last time. I love all of it, but my favorite part is when you get to the top and it’s open and you can see the whole valley.

We got back to the lodge in perfect timing, just an hour before the winds picked up, and also while they were still serving french fries. We were able to get on the earlier bus out of Porsmork.

The bus ride out was a ton of fun. As always Sage loved the water crossing and cheered as we crossed each one.

As we headed back, we made plans for the next few days. We’ll take an easy few days, visiting some of the small stops and the pools from here to Reykjavik. The weather forecast is for Vík to be windy, so we decide to hang around Hella.

We had dinner at a restaurant that we had been to with Brian and Sheryl. The food was delicious. Sage was tired and generally unhappy. We ate quickly and went to the campsite to get her to sleep.

Today we planned on an easy day. We visited the playground at the campsite and then the pool. It was a great pool with two slides, two kiddie pools and three hot tubs in addition to the main pool. Sage had a great time going from pool to pool, going on the slides and playing with the water toys. She didn’t want to leave.