This post contains writing from Smithsonian student Matthew!

Hi, my name is Matthew S., and I was leader of the day on June 29th. We started off the day leaving the hostel and going to take a six mile hike to see a waterfall in Hvalfjarðarsveit. Between the cliffs along the trail and steep stair climbs, we came over the ridge, where we could see the waterfall birds nesting in the cliffs, and rainbows caused by how high the fall was. After a short break, we kept going to reach the top.

During the hike, we had two river crossings, one of which required us to climb across a log to reach the other side. Meanwhile, in the other river, we crossed through glacial waters, but no one fell in and got soaked. Some bugs wanted to enjoy some of the lunch we ate after our second crossing! Coming down was an easier trek, and we made it down with few breaks. Once returning to the bus, we took a long ride to Snæfellsnes, stopping in Borgarnes for snacks and food. We soon arrived at the guesthouse and found two cats, Loki and Thor, who lived there.

Throughout the week, we had been thinking about our glacier hike. It was something many people had been looking forward to. We soon found out that because of weather, we would need to head out on our hike after dinner! This meant our night would be a long one. After obtaining our ice axes, crampons, and harnesses, we left for the mountain. The mountain is an “active” volcano, with a glacier situated on top. We drove to the lowest point of where the bus could take us, and we walked to the lowest part of the glacier before putting our crampons on. The hike up was cold and windy, but after about an hour we made it to our stopping point. We saw crevasses within the ice, which slowly start to form or become exposed as the temperatures drop during the summer. Our hike down was under a thick layer of clouds coming in. After hiking over valleys of snow, and ridges of volcanic rocks and moss, we made it back to the bus tired but happy. We stopped back to drop off our gear at “Walk and Talk with my Uncle.” We made it back by 1:30 am, but the sun kept our entire hike lit up! It set as we came home.

Everyone was thrilled that we got to see the most amazing falls and landscapes. We’re glad we got to do the hike – it was either a midnight hike, or no hike at all!

– Matthew S.