Mount Olympus

This weekend we decided to get out of the city and into some nature. When we lived in Wisconsin, we would go hiking almost every week. We have really been missing that since we moved here. 

We picked Mount Olympus as our hiking spot. It has some pretty extensive trails and three different peaks to climb. Some of the hikes can take up to three or four days to complete. So, we needed to make sure we were prepared and knew our route well. We used a really cool app called All Trails to map out our route on Mount Olympus. It gives you a bunch of hikes pretty much anywhere and allows you to download the map. Then, you are able to see where you are on the trail, even when you phone doesn't have service. After this hike, we were sold and bought the app. 😅

The drive up the mountain was a bit scary. The road was very thin (only about as wide as one car), and there are no guard rails...needless to say, it was not my favorite drive. However, the rest was gorgeous and so much fun!

We parked at an old monastery (it is still in use partially) and took the famous E4 trail to Prionia. The monastery was beautiful. Below are a few photos of it.

The outer walls of the monastery.

Inside the monastery.

Inside the church at the monastery.

We picked the E4 trail as our first hike on Mount Olympus, because it is super popular. Lots of people hike it daily, so we knew we would see people along the way (good for safety and friend making!). It was neat to see people, say a quick hi, and find out where they were from. The hike was up the mountain on the way to Prionia. By the time we arrived in the tiny village (it is the only village on the mountain and has only 63 residents), we were literally soaked in sweat! We stopped at this small restaurant and had a quick lemonade and small lunch. Then, we hiked back down the mountain. Check out these great views! We even saw a waterfall.

In all, we hiked a total of 4.41 miles and it took us about 2 hours. We up an elevation of 1,270 feet! We will definitely be returning to Mount Olympus many more times while we live here.