Iceland - Seltun

August 17, 2013

Distance: 4.2 miles
Time: 2 hours 39 minutes

Year to date miles: 248.7

Driving directions: We didn't have good driving directions....but it did involve a long gravel road.

Map: We didn't have a real map - just a drawing in the Cicerone book. The Cicerone book mentions a map for the area, but we weren't sure where to pick one up. I wish we had one, and that we had modified our hike.

Hike description: Cicerone Walking and Trekking in Iceland, Walk 7. The initial part that tourists do was great. We went further than the main tourist route - and the trail up was super steep - where your calves ache going up, and going down, you just feel like you are going to slide on the gravel downhill constantly. The second part which we saw no one on - we just had no idea where to go. The trail was unmarked - and we really had problems finding anything like a trail.

Sign for Seltun - it showed a map of some of the trails - but I wish we had a real map of the area.

Boiling water next to the trail

Again, a strong smell of sulfur

Looking down at the parking area

Going down was hard and slow!

To continue along the hike, the book says to walk along the road (taking a left from the parking area) a short ways.

Looking back at Seltun parking area.

And the hike description says to climb over the fence at this sign.
So...the sign doesn't have a picture of hikers, which is a bad sign....

The hike description says to step over a fence. Umm....it is a 4 foot tall electric fence. WTH?
We walked back and forth along the fence for a ways trying to figure it out.
In the end, we rolled under the fence.

So, here we are. I see no trail. It says to head towards a wooden building....okay, so  we did....

Maybe this is a trail? Or maybe just tire tracks?
We found and lost the trail if you could call it that

This was actually the first stream crossing on our trip where we had to wade.
And neither of us bothered to bring our crocs on the hike.
But Glen had a pair of plastic boot covers which we used to get across without removing our boots

We got to another point where the book said to climb over a fence. Another electric fence.
We were so confused. We ended up turning around at that point and giving up on the hike.
Not a hike I recommend!