Glymur Falls is the second highest waterfall in Iceland, at 198 meters tall. I wonder why this is not called Glymurfoss, since every other waterfall in Iceland is a 'foss'. The hike is about an hour's drive from Reykjavik.
There was a legend, the tale of Rauđhöfđi (which means Redhead), told on a sign board along the hike. There once was an elf woman who turned her red-haired human lover into a whale because he refused to acknowledge that her two children were sired by him. The angry whale lived in Hvalfjörđur fjord (which means whale fjord), attacking and sinking ships. After the whale had attacked a ship and drowned two sons of the priest of Saurbćr, the priest got revenge by luring the whale inland and up the Botnsá river (the Botnsá river is the water that flows down Glymur Falls). When the whale swum up the waterfall, it caused earthquakes and loud clanging noises (Glymur means "loud rumbling") - the whale ended up in Hvalvatn lake (Whale Lake), above the falls, where he died of exhaustion.
I was surprised at how popular the Glymur Falls hike is. There is a large parking lot at the trailhead, and there were many vehicles there when we arrived.
The first section of the hike is through fields of pretty purple flowers. This soon leads to a natural tunnel in the rock. On the far side of the tunnel is log across the Botnsá river. There is a cable next to the log, but it is questionable whether holding onto the cable is a help or a hindrance. There is a lot of slack in the cable.
The hike then travels steeply upwards along the edge of the gorge. There are numerous sections with cables/ropes anchored beside the trail to assist hikers in their ascent or descent. This is a steep trail, and I was glad that the rocks were dry. We went as high as viewpoint #5. The ideal route is to climb all the way to the top, cross the Botnsá river above Glymur Falls, and then complete a loop back to the parking lot. But it looked threatening, like it was about to rain. I did not want to be on the steep rocks in the rain, so we returned the way we came up. Of course, it turned out to not rain, so we could have completed the whole loop. But we did get a pretty good view of Glymur from viewpoint #5.
