March 11th, Part Two: A Super Scenic Hike

I eventually stopped ogling the waterfall and got back in the car. Time for our next stop! We drove a bit further, went past Portree, and parked in a lot on the side of the road. Time to hike the Old Man of Storr!

I had seen a lot of pictures of this hike online, and it was one of my definite must-do things for Scotland. We somehow lucked out with really nice weather, so we laced up our hiking boots and started up the hill.

I don't think we were even halfway up before we started getting some awesome views. The trail got a bit steeper and muddier and passed through a few gates, but we kept going.

It was totally worth it.   :)

The trail kept going up toward the rocks, so we kept going with it.

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but the grass looked so soft at times that if it hadn't been so rocky, I would have been tempted to roll around on it.

The clouds kept drifting in and out around the rocks, and made for some really cool views.

I kept stopping to take pictures and lost track of Mark at one point, but I eventually found him way out on a hill off to the side.

I hiked out to follow him, and stopped to look behind me for a second.

I eventually made it up to Mark on the hill. The views were pretty great out that way, too.

We eventually started wandering back toward the car. The clouds started filling in around the higher rocks as we walked along.

We finally got back down to the bigger part of the path, said goodbye to the hills, and hiked back down to the car. That was easily one of the coolest hikes I've ever done, and I'd gladly go back and do it again.

It didn't take long to get back to Portree, so we checked in, dropped our bags in the room, and went back out to explore the town a bit.

The little harbor area was really pretty...

...and some of the buildings along the water were really pretty, too. We wound up having dinner at one of the restaurants down here. We walked around town for a while, trying to figure out where we wanted to eat, but a lot of the restaurants were either closed for the season or packed with other tourists. (Of all the places we went in Scotland, I think Portree felt the most touristy.) We eventually came across a small restaurant down by the water and decided it sounded pretty good. We were a little worried that we were the only ones there, but within twenty minutes the place had filled up and they were turning people away! We had a tasty dinner, stopped a nearby hotel bar for a drink, then went back to the room and headed to bed.