Distance: 24-25 kilometres. Route: Atlastaðir in Svarfaðardalur Skallárdalur Unadalsjökull Unadalur Hólkot in Unadalur.
Maximum elevation: 920 metres. Hiking time: 10-12 hours.
When people talk about taking the Unadalsjökull glacier route they mean the route between Svarfaðardalur valley and Unadalur along the Unadalsjökull glacier. This route was quite well-travelled, especially as regards the store at Hofsós, as it was a much shorter route for the inhabitants in the inner part of Svarfaðardalur valley to go there than to Akureyri. The hike starts at Atlastaðir farm and you enter the Skallárdalur valley from the north. To begin with, the trail goes along a grassy hillside and then along a number of large clusters of hills. Presently mount Skjöldur is to the right and further on is the Sandskálarhnjúkur peak and north of it is the trail to Sandskarð pass. There are several quite steep slopes at the bottom of the valley and you start ascending where two branches of the Skallár river meet and you turn to the north. At the bottom of the valley you need to hike up a steep slope before you reach a barren level gravel plain, which forms a regular curved bottom in the Skallárdalur valley. When you get up on the slope the Hvarfdalsskarð pass can be seen and there is a trail from there to the Fljót area. We continue our hike and set the course to Unadalsjökull glacier, which we need to traverse. Nowhere is the steepness particularly great but we need to show great caution in the late summer when the glacier becomes more slippery and fissures appear. In these parts the glacier has reduced greatly in size and retreated tens if not hundreds of metres in recent decades. On the eastern part of the Unadalsjökull glacier we follow the trail along the Hákambar crest and from there the trail inclines towards the west, down the glacier and to the innermost foothills of Unadalur valley. To the right there is another trail that leads down to the Fljót area along Jökulfjall mountain and down the Móafellsdalur valley. The hike leads us north along the Lambá stream, a little streamlet that falls from the glacier and joins the Suðrárdalsá river further below. You need to keep to the northern side of the valley and now there is a long hike ahead of us down the valley over endless marshlands and a few clusters of hillocks. The innermost traces of human habitation in Unadalur valley are supposedly on a mound which is called Einbúi, below the Fremstuhólar hills. Further down the valley there are more traces, as well as the ancient farm Miðhólar on hills of the same name. There were several farms inhabited in latter times in the inner part of the valley, and the innermost of these was Spáná. Past the ruins of these farms the trail goes down the valley.