Rishamntind Hike

Our last stop of the day was the Rishamntind Hike which was up on the plateau, but we still went up a mountain! This was one I was looking forward to as it looked gorgeous, but we almost didn’t do it! So the trail was marked with red T’s painted on rocks and we stared walking and dropped down a bit…and could not find the trail. Like normally even if you don’t see the trail markings you can see where the trail, or a trail, is, but here? Nothing as far as you could see, which you could see far, looked like a trail! Like the first photo? The trail is there somewhere…when we first where like where do at go?? I did have a slight moment of panic like we can’t see the car anymore if there is no trail it would be so easy to get lost…but then was like we are just below the car it is fine.

We looked around and I saw a red T so we headed over to that to see if we could see the trail…and nothing. I had my map on my phone, but it was so strange! We were going to head back as we don’t want to just wander lost, but I wanted to walk down the hill a bit to see in the valley if you could see anything and by the time we got there we found the red T markers! So off we went. We had to keep looking for them, and Raymond is usually the trail finder, but today I was the one that kept finding the T’s! I don’t know that this is a popular trail as it was not that well worn in places that it would have been, but at least in some spots you could see where it was supposed to be.

Part of the trail was through this area with these small mounds of dirt/grass. It was odd! Like instead of walking from rock to rock we walked from mounds of dirt to mound of dirt…and then it got very wet in between the mounds so that was interesting! I don’t think we have ever hiked through terrain like that!

Then we got up to the ridge and there were all these really cool rocks! It looked like a lava flow that weathered cool until at got closer and it really was like fine quartz and black granules with larger rocks mixed in. It was also a little crumbly and was really strange. It was so cool. They were all different shapes and we spent a good amount of time looking at them even though it was so incredibly windy on the ridge and the wind was freezing! Still have to look at the rocks!

When we got to the top there were really gorgeous views over the water and the other mountains and I loved it! So open you could see all the things! It really looked like Iceland, so much so that in the way back I thought we were in Iceland for a moment before being like wait no, we are in Norway! We didn’t spend that much time at the top because of the wind. It was so so so windy! We dropped back down a bit and found a spot with not much wind and had a break there.

The walk back was easier to see the red T signs as it seems like a lot of the ones on the way up had fallen over or were turned the wrong way. Raymond kept fixing them so people who come later will be able to find their way. He’s always leaving the trail better than we found it :) Our first “real” hike of the trip and it was so much fun! Raymond loved that so much of it was kind of like just go wherever in this general direction. He was like we’ve never done a trail that was just kind of go wherever! No one mentioned/took photos of the cool rocks in the reviews I saw either so they were a total surprise! Such fun!Read more