A Short Hiking Adventure

The initial focus of this trip was to capture Rock Ptarmigan, a type of game bird that’s quite common in Iceland yet incredibly hard to spot due to being very well camouflaged. Commonly known in Iceland as ‘Rjúpa’, rock ptarmigan are one of those species that seem to be overlooked in many ways but are extraordinary in how they choose to live their lives. Much like the Arctic fox (one of the birds predators), they share the common goal of survival by camouflage and stealth. Firstly, the rock ptarmigan changes coat in order to blend in with it’s environment. As the seasons change from summer to winter, the rjúpa will shed its feathers and turn from brown to white, practically making it invisible in the snow and making my life extra hard while i’m hiking to find them! Rock ptarmigan also have feathered feet, small tufts of hair on the ends of their feet allow the ptarmigan to traverse a landscape without making a sound and evading predators that rely on hearing as a main hunting tactic. The rock ptarmigan is so well camouflaged in the snow that I could essentially be walking adjacent to it and not even realise that it’s there.

I remember at the start of this year, I wanted to make it my mission to get one great photograph of this bird! Last year in 2024, I managed to get incredibly lucky and capture a rock Ptarmigan in the south of Iceland. However, while this was totally by accident, I found that I walked away from that experience wanting more from the image. I wanted to get closer, a better composition, a different light… There was something that I felt was missing from my 2024 photograph of the rock ptarmigan. So this year, my mission is to explore the outdoors a lot more, making more and more videos while keeping an eye for this ghost bird.

Image taken in 2024 on a small hike in the south of Iceland.

The Adventure begins!

On Saturday 8th of March 2025, I decided to make a video attempting to find one of these birds and photograph it. I knew from the start that this was going to be difficult as the bird is incredibly hard to spot and I was hiking in the middle of the day so activity would be low. My intention was to capture rjúpa while still being open minded about where I was and what kind of hiking experience I would have. My brother in law initially mentioned a great spot where he had some luck finding rjúpa. So, after gathering my gear together the following day, pinpointing several spots where rjúpa might be located, I then decided to head off and see what I could photograph. The end goal was Glymur waterfall, located at the end of a fjord in the South-West of Iceland, my intention was to hike to this waterfall while keeping an eye for any signs of rock ptarmigan that I may find. Of course, filming a video for YouTube was an added challenge, but I found the more I filmed the more I enjoyed the overall process. Even if it took more time away from searching for the ghost bird, I found that I had achieved a good balance of recording, photographing and exploring.

Location one was just off the side of the road. A beautiful spot that overlooked part of the fjord as well as access to a small forested area that looked like it had potential to photograph rjúpa. I decided to finish up recording and move on to the final location (which was the beginning of the glymur hike) when a couple of local Icelanders started chatting with me. We talked about the geography of the area and my intention to photograph rock ptarmigan. He sparked my interest when he mentioned that just passed this road, on the banks of the shore is where many people go searching for mussels during low tide. I really loved chatting with him and he gave me some interesting insights about the area I was travelling through!

A few stops later, I reached the beginning of the Glymur hike and continued my search for the illusive bird.

A screenshot from Open-Maps detailing the area I was traversing.

As i mentioned above, I really enjoyed the process of filming, photographing and exploring. It was challenging at times but really fun to gain experience regarding the geography of this area. Below are a few stills from my recent upload to YouTube, consider subscribing and check out the full video below!

Upon reaching the beginning of the hike, I prepped my gear and continued to press on. not really concerned about how long it would take me to get to Glymur I was however prepared for the terrain ahead. Recently purchasing a pair of new Mammut shoes, these gave me a lot more ankle support and far superior grip on the downslope. The conditions were less Icy than expected with fresh snow covering an uneven surface and with the trail still visible, it made for a much smoother walk. There were parts of the trail covered in snow but nothing deep and I traversed the terrain pretty quickly, only stopping to take video footage when needed or when listening for ptarmigan noise. I did meet several other hikers along the way and everyone was pretty nice on the trail, sharing information about accessibility and conditions.

Not much luck with regards to finding ptarmigan but I did manage to spot some fox trails, which typically is a good sign that prey and predator are active in the area. I followed the trail for a while, hoping that it would lead me to a fox den but unfortunately I lost the tracks after 15 minutes. The highlight of the trip was finding access to a cave formation close to the riverbed of the waterfall. It was super interesting to see this cave and explore it, especially during the winter with many icicles formed along the ridges of the cave entrance. Check out the full video below which details my exploration of this cave!

Reaching the viewing point

After about an hour walking through the area, investigating the cave, taking footage for my video… I realised that I had taken quite a while to reach Glymur viewing point due to spending more time than necessary investigating the cave formation and taking pictures 😅 The idea of photographing rock ptarmigan disappeared and my initial goal before venturing on this hike had changed. I somehow surrendered myself to the fact that I was not hiking with a purpose anymore, I was simply enjoying my time outside and experiencing whatever nature had. In a nutshell, I ended up enjoying this hike way more than expected, even though I had not seen a single bird! I knew from the start that the chances of photographing rock ptarmigan were slim but as the day went on, I enjoyed my experience more and more, regardless of my initial goal!

Something which I mentioned at the end of my YouTube video was that I found the overall experience of hiking here to be quite social. i met a few people along the trail and had quite a few conversations about the geography of the landscape, the conditions of the trail ahead, Iceland as a whole and more… I like this hike a lot because it was one of my more social hikes and I had many interactions with people that were clearly very happy to experience Glymur as much as I was. In the end, I sat down on a rock near an overview of the river which the waterfall feeds and took my drone out for a final few shots. The day was capped off this way and the journey back to the car was filled with much satisfaction and overall happiness at my time at Glymur.

“Glymur viewing point”

The final stop of the hike, taking photos of Glymur waterfall with my drone and exploring the area.

“Drone and the fjord”

On the way back from Glymur waterfall, I captured this image with my drone overlooking the fjord that I had just driven around.