Igor has spent months exploring every inch of Iceland over several years. He specializes in the Highlands, F-roads, hiking, hot springs, and less touristy places. He loves Iceland and keeps coming back.
Igor has spent months exploring every inch of Iceland over several years. He specializes in the Highlands, F-roads, hiking, hot springs, and less touristy places. He loves Iceland and keeps coming back.
For this day I planned some beautiful short hikes in Eastfjords and hikes in Borgarfjörður Eystri. And, as always, I also planned to drive some amazing mountain roads in the Eastfjords highland of Iceland. I’ve done thorough research for beautiful and remote places in Eastfjords and ended up with the following list.
The plan was to start by driving north from our accommodation in Hrafnabjorg and do the short hike to picturesque sea cliffs called Ker. Then I wanted to do some mountain driving with nice views from above, so I planned to drive road 917, enjoy the view from above and come back. Our next destination was Borgarfjordur Eystri and I planned a beautiful short hike to Brunavik beach there. Our hike to Brúnavík beach turned out to be one of the most amazing short hikes we’ve done in Iceland. Definitely recommended!
If we had enough time, energy and daylight I also wanted to drive the legendary F946 F-road all the way to Loðmundarfjorður. But not in a straightforward way, rather driving via detour to Breidavik beach first, via Breiðavík track. The aim was then to end the day in Seydisfjordur. A long day full of adventures ahead!
There’s one pretty overlooked short hike that almost nobody seems to be mentioning which I somehow managed to dig out from local Icelandic sources. It is called Ker. The area of Ker is a coastal area and the entire hike leads along the beautiful coast. It ends in front of picturesque cliffs that carry the name Ker.
Hiking trail to Ker cliffs
In late August, the weather at the time of our visit was amazing in the north and in the east. Weeks and weeks of sunshine and hot weather of 20°C (68°F) and more almost every day. We took advantage of this and planned some amazing hikes in Eastfjords, one of them being hike to Ker, which was really enjoyable in sunny weather.
Map of the hiking trail to Ker
Hike to Ker is a short and easy hike even families or elderly will definitely be able to do. It takes around 30-40 minutes one way and along the entire trail you will have a nice coastal view of the sea and nearby cliffs. The trail is not well marked, but there’s a semi-trodden path that can be distinguished with some effort. The entire hike starts here and leads along the coast, closer to Ker cliffs. There are multiple nice viewpoints along the trail.
Ker cliffs
You’re gonna pass black beaches, cliffs with black beaches and all that near the sea. And you’ll meet almost no visitors. The hike is not being done by typical tourists. We’ve met just one couple during the entire hike. I can definitely recommend a hike to Ker as a nice short hike in Iceland.
Road 917 Hlíðarvegur
Road 917, Hlíðarvegur
The next on the plan was a drive towards zig-zagged mountain road 917, Hlídarvegur. Driving up the road 917 is a pretty decent climb which can be done by any car in summer, because Hlídarvegur has quite good quality and is almost fully paved. The more you go outside of the full summer season (July and August), the lower the chances you can drive the road in any car. If you plan to drive the road in a more off-season period I definitely do recommend a 4×4 car.
On top of the road 917, Hlidarvegur
Views from Hlídarvegur are very nice, especially in a good weather with good visibility. You are able to see all nearby beaches from above as well as Borgarfjörður Eystri further in the distance. For me, road 917 was worth a short detour, not for my wife though, who doesn’t enjoy driving Icelandic mountain roads as much as me :))
Borgarfjörður Eystri
Our main activities of this day in Iceland were the hikes in Borgarfjordur Eystri and driving the F-roads in Borgarfjörður Eystri. That being said, our next stop was exactly this amazing mountainous area. Borgarfjordur is a group of several mountains in Eastfjords and is truly a hikers’ paradise. There are more than 40 different hiking trails and if you wanted to explore only half of them, you could easily spend here a month or more. Here is the map of Borgarfjörður Eystri hikes.
Dyrfjöll mountains in Borgarfjörður Eystri
We obviously didn’t have a spare month to spend in Borgarfjordur, so the hardest task was to choose. What short and beautiful hike should we take in Borgarfjörður Eystri to have a good glimpse of the entire area? After some research I finally settled with a hike to Brúnavík beach. And now I can conclude it was a good decision.
View over Borgarfjörður Eystri
Luckily, just driving to Borgarfjörður Eystri made it for amazing views. You will be driving coastal zig-zagged roads which are fully paved with views over sea and over massive mountains of Dyrfjöll. There are places at the side of the road where you can stop and take a picture of this beautiful area, so take advantage of it 🙂
The actual village of Borgarfjordur is pretty small with limited meal and accommodation options. But, this is what makes this area so unique – remoteness and endless surrounding nature.
Hike to Brúnavík beach
In the middle of the trail to Brúnavík beach in Eastfjords
There are two alternatives of hiking to Brúnavík beach – a longer one and a shorter one. A longer one starts closer to Bakkagerði (see our map below) and you can either make a loop trip or a roundtrip via same trail. It is 15km long and will and the roundtrip will take you roughly 5 hours.
Brunavik beach hike map
The shortest hike to Brunavik beach starts at a little carpark near Borgarfjarðarhöfn (see the trail marked with yellow in our map). This is where we started our hike to Brúnavík. The roundtrip hike to the Brunavik beach and back from this spot is roughly 8km long and it took us 3.5-4hours to finish the roundtrip using the same trail there and back. Hiking trail is marked with yellow sticks so it’s easy to follow the path.
View over Dyrfjöll mountains from the hiking trail to Brúnavík
The hike connects the western and eastern part of the coast via small mountain pass. Brunavik hike starts with a rather uneventful ascent, but turning back and looking at the coast you will soon be getting really nice views over Borgarfjörður Eystri and mountains of Dyrfjöll. After roughly an hour of ascent, you will reach the highest point of the trail where you cannot sea either part of the coast (yet). After continuing forth for a few minutes, the best views will slowly start to reveal in front of you.
Hiking trail to Brúnavík beach
In a good weather you will soon realize what is this entire hike to Brúnavík beach about. The view over Brunavik beach is one of its kind and truly amazing. Brúnavík beach was one of the most beautiful places we’ve seen during our trip. Even my wife, that is not much into hiking, was amazed by this hike. The second part of the hike is a descent towards the beach. At times it gets a bit steep but the hiking trail is in good conditions so anybody in at least a medium shape should be able to do it. Just don’t expect a 10-minute flat walk.
Hike to Brúnavík beach
Brúnavík beach was lovely at the time of our visit. And completely deserted. We enjoyed our time at the beach so much, the more so in warm and sunny weather. It’s an amazing picnic spot and both a place to just sit, relax and enjoy the beauty of Icelandic fjords. We were able to take some of our most beautiful photos here just with our phones.
Amazing Brúnavík beach hidden in Borgarfjörður Eystri
Rather than doing a longer loop-trip to Bakkagerði, we took the same way back. Thus, we firstly had to ascend the steeper part near the beach and then to descend back to the car park. When we finished the hike, it was around 16:30, so we still had a few hours of daylight and I definitely wanted to spend them by driving some amazing F-roads.
Breiðavík track
If you want to drive the road F946, Loðmundarfjarðarvegur, all the way to Loðmundarfjorður and Klyppstaðarkirkja, you can either drive road 946 first and then directly proceed to F946 or you can do a mountain drive detour to another beach called Breidavik. Since I don’t like the easier roads, of course I wanted to rather drive the Breiðavík beach track.
Breiðavík track in Borgarfjörður Eystri leading to Breiðavík beach
The Breiðavík track starts by driving a few kilometers of road 946 first and then turning left to the Breiðavík track. Keep in mind this is just a track, i.e. the road quality is even worse than F-roads. You definitely need at least a big 4×4 to drive the road and ideally a super jeep. Also, please check with you car rental company if you are allowed to drive the track. If you rent a super jeep, it’s usually allowed (that’s what super jeeps are for, right?).
The Breiðavík beach track starts as a pretty scary steep and narrow ascent with abyss to one or both sides right next to you. Although we had a great car for such roads, my wife was still freaking out. And yes, I have to admit, this road is nothing for 4×4 beginners and neither for those who are afraid of heights.
Breiðavík track in Borgarfjörður Eystri leading to Breiðavík beach
After a few minutes of drive, you will reach the point where you can see another steep, narrow and really zig-zagged part of the track in front of you. This was the spot where my wife refused to continue, so we turned back and didn’t finish the track. But I definitely plan to finish it sometimes soon all the way to Breiðavík. After doing that, I will also complete this article about the Breidavik track and report on the quality of the second half of the track.
F946 – Loðmundarfjarðarvegur
We drove back from the Breiðavík track to the beginning of road 946. You have to first drive 946 to reach F946. The “simple” 946 makes for roughly a half of the entire path to Loðmundarfjorður. 946 is a semi-paved road, technically possible to be driven by a 2wd vehicle only, but we recommend to take a 4×4 for it, especially if you plan to reach the end of the road, not just the beginning.
F946 in Borgarfjörður Eystri
The second half of the road 946 turns into a mountain drive and you will begin a zig-zagged and steep ascent into the Borgarfjörður Eystri mountains. You will eventually reach the point where 946 turns into F946. This is where the road conditions worsen. Road gets even bumpier, steeper and narrower. There are no river crossings on F946, though.
F946 – Loðmundarfjarðarvegur
We recommend driving F946 in at least a medium-sized 4×4 car, ideally a large 4×4, especially if you don’t have much experience with steep mountain drives. The main danger of the road lies in steep and narrow ascents and descents and all that on a gravel track with potholes. We’ve seen also small 4wd cars driving F946 (like Jimny) but they were struggling and we consider using such cars irresponsible and dangerous.
F946 Loðmundarfjarðarvegur Borgarfjörður Eystri
Views all around F946 are simply amazing and you will be passing many different types of mountains and mountain passes of the beautiful Borgarfjordur Eystri area. Once you climb the highest point, which is located after the Húsavikúrskáli hut, you will then need to make a longer descent all the way to Klyppstaðarkirkja. This part of Iceland is inhabited only scarcely, mostly by rangers or researchers and only during summer. We didn’t have many hours of daylight remaining so we turned back soon and drove all the way to Seydisfjordur for our next accommodation stop.
Langisjór, Skælingar track, Blautulón track and Sveinstindur hike. That was our schedule for our last day in the highlands of southern Iceland.
In case of a good weather I had planned to visit either Kerlingarfjöll or Thakgil or Langisjór area. The weather at Kerlingarfjöll was either rainy or foggy the 8th day in a row so this wasn’t an option, and also we’d already been there a year ago. Thus, it became a choice between Langisjór and Thakgil, both of them with a mixed weather forecast, but Langisjór area with one which was slightly less rainy. And I really wanted to drive the Skælingar dirt track to Langisjór 🙂 Thus, we went for Langisjór!
Beware, the Skaelingar and Blautulon tracks we drove are just dirt tracks. Not even F-roads. This means they are even harder to drive than F-roads. Always check with your rental company if it allows for such roads, choose your car wisely and study the roads in advance. Mostly only super jeeps are allowed to drive the dirt tracks.
Map of our day around Langisjór tracks
Weather was merciful to us and the day actually turned out to be pretty nice along our road, despite the mixed forecast. We didn’t experience any rain and the fog was present only at some spots (like Sveinstindur once again…). This night we were based near Hekla so it didn’t make sense to drive to Langisjór from the south (F208 south) and hence we drove from the north.
I was sure I don’t want to drive the boring, bumpy and full of tourists road 208 (F208 north). We turned to F225, Landmannaleið, which is an “F-road highway” in my opinion. Very good quality F-road and a bit underrated road in my opinion – at least compared to 208 which is much worse in both the views and the quality – that’s my view. Landmannaleid is also shorter than 208 north, so we soon reached the Landmannalaugar area.
F208, Fjallabaksleið Nyrðri, close to Landmannalaugar
The weather at Landmannalaugar was amazing. It actually seemed like the only place with the clear blue skies and sun shining everywhere. The views from our drive around Landmannalaugar mountains were amazing. And, we faced a though dilemma – whether to go for an unknown (and probably worse) weather at Langisjór or whether to hike again at Landmannalaugar (we’d been there already and done the hikes, though not in such a great weather). Finally, I decided to risk it and go for Langisjór.
The easiest way to get to Langisjór is via pretty harmless F-road of F235, which contains only small to medium sized river crossings and no other real obstacles. I wanted to try a more adventurous track there, though. It is called the Skaelingar track and it’s located north of Holaskjól highlands centre, just next to the river crossing (and the ranger’s hut). Skælingar track is a not much known detour from F208 south that not many travelers pursue, due to it not being well-known. Great highlands destination 🙂
Road F208, or Fjallabaksleið Nyrðri, after crossing with F235 towards Landmannalaugar
The visibility got much worse 10 minutes south of Landmannalaugar already, much sooner than expected. We drove in a giant fog and couldn’t see more than a few meters ahead of us. However, we knew that all of the river crossings on this route should be harmless – we’d done them a year before in Dacia Duster and this year the water level was even lower. And exactly this was the case – no problems at all with the fords at F208 and really shallow rivers.
Skælingar dirt track
Skælingar track before Skælingar hut
After some foggy driving, we firstly arrived at the junction of F208 and F235. We continued driving the F208 and drove by another hidden detour – Faxasund track – which is actually a third track (along F235 and Skaelingar) leading to Langisjór. Faxasund is, however, said to be the most difficult out of these three paths, so this time we chose the second one – Skælingar track. Lastly, we crossed the first river at F208 south, next to the ranger’s hut and north of Holaskjól and finally arrived at the slightly hidden detour towards the Skælingar track.
Skaelingar track
There’s a very interesting medium to big river crossing (more medium at the time of our visit) right at the beginning of the track. So, if you don’t feel like doing it, you may turn back right at the beginning. For this kind of river crossings, you should have both the past experience with river crossings and take the proper car, i.e. at least Land Cruiser size or some kind of super jeep. Of course, it may be doable with Dacia Duster if you are lucky, but you may also fly with Dacia Duster if you are lucky – this doesn’t mean it’s recommended, nor responsible!
Skælingar track river crossing
The first river crossing on Skaelingar track is also the only river crossing. To arrive at the other bank, you have to actually drive tens of meters IN the river bed (similarly to e.g. F210 river crossing or Strútur track river crossing). This is always a very exciting and memorable experience. With our 33” Land Cruiser with snorkel we didn’t have any problems with completing the ford.
Skælingar track
The Skælingar track then continued in form of the narrow dirt tracks in green surroundings of grass and moss. We passed along the big Mercedes Unimog which was struggling a bit driving these very narrow tracks, but the driver looked to be really enjoying the drive anyway 🙂 He was kind enough to let us overtake him at the earliest convenience.
Skælingar hut
The landscapes were picturesque almost along the entire road. After some 30 minutes of driving we arrived at the Skaelingar hut situated remotely in beautiful surroundings. It’s possible to take 2 different paths towards Langisjór from here… I already knew I want to take the longer, but much more exciting and picturesque route leading not next to the, but THROUGH Blautulón lake. Yes, through. More about that soon.
Blautulón lake track
Blautulón track shortly before the Blautulón lake
The dirt track towards Blautulón lake led in between little hills and was a track consisting of both the gravel and the volcanic ash without any major obstacles, nor river crossings. It was steeper at times but definitely manageable. The most exciting part of the Blautulón track was about to come. Once you arrive at the lake, the road suddenly disappears. Where it leads, I already knew because I had studied it and was really looking forward to it 🙂
Between Skælingar track and Blautulón track to Langisjór
We were lucky to have an amazingly beautiful weather at Blautulón with partially blue skies, little fog, no wind at all and an occasional sun. We were even able to make a picnic at Blautulón wearing just T-shirts! God bless this kind of Icelandic summer. And all of that in between stunningly beautiful mountains and the blue lake just in front of us. And us being completely alone there. A once in a lifetime moments for us.
Unforgettable drive on the edge of the Blautulón lake.
As I already hinted, after we moved on from the front of the Blautulón lake, the road didn’t just continue in an ordinary way. The Blautulón track leads through the edge of the lake itself. You have to drive inside the lake, at the bank of the lake, for several hundreds of meters. For me as a roads’ enthusiast, this was an amazingly unique drive. After passing Blautulón, the track soon connects to the final part of F235.
Sveinstindur hike
Hiking to Sveinstindur peak next to Langisjór lake
Sveinstindur is the highest accessible peak in the Langisjór area with amazing views around the surrounding landscapes in every direction. When the visibility is good. And this was the catch once again for us. A year ago, I had a plan to propose to my (at that time) girlfriend after climbing up the Sveinstindur. However, the weather had different plans 🙂 There was no visibility at all and it started to rain a lot roughly around a midway towards Sveinstindur. Hence, we decided to turn back. Hence, I proposed (just) on the hiking trail.
Sveinstindur hiking trail ridge
A year after, our weather was much better. Blue skies with occasional clouds and even a shining sun. However, the peak of Sveinstindur, as the only one, was covered in a fog for the entire time we drove and hiked around. We gave it a try anyway and climbed a few meters further than last time, but we still arrived at the point where everything above this point was entirely covered in fog. And it wasn’t getting any better. The trail from this point above is also pretty exposed with huge falls at both its sides. Thus, for the second time we gave up on our plans to reach the top.
View over the Langisjór lake from Sveinstindur trail
Nevertheless, the views around the area were still stunningly beautiful. Judge it yourself, here are the pictures 🙂 This time we were lucky enough to see almost the entire Langisjór lake. Langisjór is a giant glacial lake and a hiker’s paradise with numerous trails close to its banks. With its crystal-clear waters, Langisjór is also a fishermen paradise.
View over the Langisjór lake from Sveinstindur trail
Sitting in the car for almost entire day, we were still hungry for a nice hike. However, the weather at Sveinstindur started to worsen. Fog was falling down and the clouds were coming. We hiked back to our car when it started to rain. We decided to drive back towards Landmannalaugar to see if the situation is still as good there weather-wise as was the case in the morning. On our way there, it started to rain considerably with an entire area covered by fog. Luckily, we had already seen an amazing F235 a year before.
Bláhnúkur hike
One of the best views over Landmannalaugar is from the peak of Bláhnúkúr
The daylight was slowly approaching its final hours when we arrived at Brennisteinsalda campsite in Landmannalaugar. The weather remained wonderful there. Although being already pretty tired, I persuaded my wife to go for a quick Bláhnúkur hike. This meant, we would probably be dead-tired after the hike, but I simply couldn’t resist doing it in such a wonderful weather and close to the sunset.
Another view from Bláhnúkúr over landmannalaugar
The year before we went for an entire Brennistensalda – Bláhnúkur loop, which took us more than 5 hours to complete, including pauses and attempts to find the correct path. This time we just wanted to get directly to Bláhnúkur and back via the same trail (west from the campsite). My wife was skeptical whether we will be able to do the Bláhnúkur round-trip in 2 hours, as I had expected. More specifically, she really doubted, we would get up under 1.5 hour.
Looking from the peak of Bláhnúkúr
In reality, we climbed to the peak of Bláhnúkur in 38 minutes 🙂 Yes, we hiked pretty quickly, without pauses. But still – Bláhnúkur maybe looks as a distant peak – but it’s actually pretty close to the Landmannalaugar campsite.
Why we even bothered to climb Bláhnúkur? Because the views from Bláhnjúkur are the best views you can get over an entire fairytale-like Landmannalaugar area in the shortest time possible. And we were not disappointed! Hiking in the T-shirt, we arrived at the peak and admired all the surrounding beauty with the sun shining all over the mountains. Great decision to go. Great views. Great memories.
Hidden hot spring. Hidden canyon. Hidden gem. Everybody wants to see this hidden place for himself. And logically, there’s a huge debate on what “hidden” nowadays actually means. Some argue that once you write about it, it’s not hidden anymore. That’s why I don’t like the word hidden at all. Let’s say the places we write about are hard to access. And that’s why, for most of the tourists, they are “hidden”.
The third day in a row forecast showed rain almost everywhere in the south and around the places we planned to visit. Once again, we had to alter our plans and chase the only remaining spots of good weather. If you are interested in how we do it, feel free to read our piece about finding a good weather in Iceland.
The forecast showed considerable rain at all the places which remained on our to-do list and even at all my back-up options. So, we basically had the following options:
Drive and hike in a considerable rain and most likely also fog with no visibility – No.
Make it a hot spring day in hot springs we had already visited in the past and around the pretty touristy and accessible southern region – No.
Stay inside, go for restaurants, cafes, museums etc. – No.
Do short hikes and go see waterfalls – we’d already done all we wanted in the south – No.
Go for the only spot where the forecast showed only a little rain, although we’d already been around that area, highlands around F261 and F210 – OK!
Our cabin between Hella and Hekla volcano
Our friend Haraldur gave us an insider tip to go see the very remote and picturesque highlandshot spring called Strutslaug, located exactly in this area. We couldn’t make it to Strutslaug on Day 2 of our trip, because we already had a pretty packed schedule and Haraldur told us it’s roughly a 4-hour hike roundtrip. This time it looked like the most plausible option – if it rains, at least we can soak in the hot spring. And let’s go for some adventure!
I also wanted to see Markarfljotslgjufur canyon from the west and if we had enough time and favorable weather, maybe also to drive the entire Hungurfit track. We had already driven the first part of the Hungurfit track on Day 2 and it was amazing (although really scary at times). So, this was the plan 🙂
F261 from west to east
F261 Emstruleið
The forecast was indeed right. We left our cabin near Hekla and it was raining. It was raining also all the way towards F261. But once we got on F261, like a miracle, it just stopped raining and the skies even seemed to clear! Once, again – chase the weather 🙂
The western part of F261 basically leads through the other bank of the Krossá river and you are able to see the Thorsmork area and F249 well from it. This part contains a lot of big gravel and the drive has to be slow and not very comfortable. The scenery is beautiful as always, although, for me, F210 was even more picturesque. This may, however, be due to the effect that we had seen F210 first 🙂
Einhyrningur mountain next to F261 road Emstruleið
F261 near F210 is composed of big gravel and some steep sections so you have to drive slowly. F261 doesn’t contain any major river crossings, only Blafjalakvisl in the end (next to F210). Blafjalakvisl is considered to be a medium river crossing. At the time of our visit, this area was pretty dry and the water level in the rivers low, so it was pretty easy to cross the river. It’s definitely possible to drive F261 also in SUV like Dacia Duster, although I cannot imagine how uncomfortable it has to be. We recommend Land Cruiser and bigger.
Markarfljotsgljufur canyon from the west
Markarfljótsgljúfur canyon west and east access
Near the end of F261, there’s a dirt track leading right as a detour from F261. It’s a detour to the western viewpoint of Markarfljotsgljufur canyon. We wrote about driving to Markarfljotsgljufur from the east here. The dirt track towards Markarfljot canyon is in pretty bad conditions, with some sharp stones all over the road. It’s also steep and narrow at some spots. However, it’s quite short. That being said, if you don’t feel like driving it, it’s also possible to simply hike/walk it.
Markarfljótsgljúfur canyon from the west viewpoint
The dirt track ends at a flat-ground spot considered to be sort of a car park. There was a group of 3 jeeps driving the track right in front of us, so we all left our 4 cars at this parking spot. There’s a sign pointing to the left (north) with the name “Markarfljotsgljufur” and a walking sign, indicating a hiking trail. However, there’s no clear trail anywhere. Definitely not a marked one.
We managed to find a not very well visible path and follow it. However, this was a real challenge given that it simply disappeared from time to time. We took special care not to walk through any moss or other parts of the fragile nature and managed to somehow always connect to the well-trodden path. The unmarked trail mostly leads along the edge of the canyon.
Hard to find the western trail of Markarfljotsgljufur canyon
At this point you are already able to see some parts of the canyon, which is stunningly beautiful, however, you cannot see it in its entirety, because getting to the edge is simply too dangerous. There are no ropes, or barriers to prevent you from falling so you have to be very careful. We walked along the edge of the canyon towards the north for about 20-30 minutes when the path suddenly completely ended. The canyon widened and branched towards left and right at that point. I think the path was supposed to continue to the left (west) but we didn’t follow it anymore and rather turned back.
Amazing rock formations of the Markarfljotsgljufur canyon in Icelandic highlands
In the beginning, we also met a group of jeep travelers, who we realized were from Switzerland. They told us they didn’t manage to find any trail and came back to their cars. Luckily, we seemed to find a much bigger part of the trail than they did. Views along the path were beautiful, but they were definitely more stunning from the eastern viewpoint. So, if I chose to visit the Markarfljotsgljufur canyon again, I would definitely go for the eastern viewpoint only.
Strútur track
To get to the Strutur dirt track, you have to first ford the Blafjalakvisl river at the end of F261. We wrote more about F261 here and also in our List of F-roads. Then you have to drive a considerable part of F210 all the way towards Maelifell. We wrote about driving the F210 towards Maelifell here. Coming from the west of F210, right before the majestic Maelifell, there’s a turn left for the dirt track with the sign “Strútur hut”. That’s exactly where we turned this time.
Beware, the Strútur tracks we drove are just dirt tracks. Not even F-roads. This means they are even harder to drive than F-roads. Always check with your rental company if it allows for such roads, choose your car wisely and study the roads in advance. Mostly only super jeeps are allowed to drive the dirt tracks.
Strútur track to Strútslaug map
The dirt track towards Strútur hut (and Strútslaug hiking point) was a beautiful, totally remote track accompanied by many sheep, river streams, and tons of lush green moss. We drove in a cloudy weather and light drizzle, which made the specific lunar atmosphere of the place even stronger.
The Strutur track is not very long but you have to drive through multiple small to medium-sized river streams. The only spot which seemed terrifying at the first glance was a drive literally through the river for a hundred of meters. We reached the spot where the normal road simply ended and we couldn’t see any road, not even in the distance. Just yellow sticks in the river which led into the river and along the river bed (not to the other side of the river as usually).
Strutur track to Strutslaug in a foggy weather
We had already driven through the length of the river bed at that point, during our drive via F210, but that was just a very shallow stream. Here the river already had some depth, I would consider it a medium-sized river crossing, but not just crossing, but rather river driving 🙂 There was no current, though and the river looked calm. I examined the river thoroughly and thanks to its calmness I could even see the bottom of the river bed which looked firm and even. The same was true for the rest of the river – at least as far as I could see.
The yellow sticks were located along the right bank, which looked slightly deeper than the left bank. But, I had already realized in the past – the sticks are there for some reason! Don’t try to be smarter than Icelandic rangers. It usually doesn’t end well 🙂 Thus, I came back inside our Land Cruiser, turned on 4×4, low-gear and locked the differential, and drove slowly along the right bank. The crossing was pretty exciting because we were virtually driving in the river for some time, but otherwise, it went smoothly.
As far as I remember, there were maybe 1 or 2 more river crossings but none of them were that big. Soon we arrived close to the Strutur hut on our left, which looked lovely in the surroundings full of moss. There was a wooden sign pointing at several available trails from this point. We aimed at Strutslaug, naturally – this was the trail to the right.
Soon we realized, the trail is actually the road with very clear and well-trodden tracks. Hence we got back into our car and drove 1 more kilometer through this right detour and arrived at the little car park with another wooden sign pointing at different trails. This was the end of the Strutur dirt track. We left our car here and began our hike towards Strutslaug.
Strútslaug hot spring
See that little white thing? That’s our car at the improvised Strutslaug car park
The hiking trail towards Strútslaug is roughly 5 kilometers long, not difficult at all, and it took us around 1.5 hours to finish it at a normal pace. It leads through nice valleys full of moss and along river streams. To hike to Strutslaug is a nice way to experience Icelandic highlands, even for families. The hike is pretty easy, just a bit long, but it doesn’t have any steep or exposed passages. It’s basically a walk through the moss valleys. Up until the last meters we were not sure where the end of the trail actually is. The Strutslaug itself is not well visible from the distance.
Beautiful Strútslaug hiking trail full of vivid green colors
When we arrived, we were very surprised not to be completely alone there. One hiker had been already there, setting up his tent in the area. After a short talk, he told us he was from the Netherlands, doing a walk all the way from Akureyri towards Hella, only via highlands and camping along the way. Brave guy 🙂 If it wasn’t for this adventurer, we would be definitely alone at Strutslaug.
There’s no changing cabin at Strutslaug. Anyway, we looked very much forward to bathing in Strutslaug, because the weather was very moody, with completely clouded skies and light drizzle throughout our entire hike. We put a bag on the wet ground, changed our clothes, covered them with waterproof clothes, and ran for the hot spring.
Surroundings of the Strútslaug hiking trail
Strutslaug is a pretty big natural hot spring that could easily welcome tens of visitors. I guess it’s never really full, given its total remoteness. It’s also pleasantly hot, with a water temperature of around 40°C according to my (non) professional estimate. It’s a very surreal and pleasant bathing experience in the middle of the total nowhere. One of my favorite Icelandic hot springs.
A really surreal place. This is a hidden hot spring Strútslaug
After soaking up in Strutslaug for about an hour, we hiked back to our car, drove back via Strutur track to Maelifell and then drove back via western F210 to F261. We crossed Blafjalaskvisl again and were deciding whether to go for one more adventure or not. Of course, we went 🙂 I persuaded my wife to drive the entire Hungurfit track.
Crazy Hungurfit track
We had already driven around one-third of the Hungurfit track on Day 2 of our highlands trip. It was very difficult, yet also amazingly stunning. As we already wrote about here, the first part of the Hungurfit track consists of narrow and steep passages and uneven gravel ground. You definitely need at least a big 4×4 to drive it, but we rather do recommend a superjeep, to be sure to drive it safely. Our friend Haraldur told us, our raised 33” Land Cruiser with snorkel was just about a minimum requirement for the Hungurfit track 🙂
Beware, the Hungurfit tracks we drove are just dirt tracks. Not even F-roads. This means they are even harder to drive than F-roads. Always check with your rental company if it allows for such roads, choose your car wisely and study the roads in advance. Mostly only super jeeps are allowed to drive the dirt tracks.
This is the legendary spot on the Hungurfit track. Many call it “impassable” 🙂
Left or right?
After the first part, you arrive at the main crossroad of the Hungurfit track. The left part leads through the amazing area full of river streams, many small river crossings, and a legendary place where you drive between two very close huge stone boulders. The right part leads through more steep and mountainous terrain with bigger holes and uneven ground and slopes, but no river crossings. For me it was an easy choice – I definitely wanted to drive again through the river crossing area. This river crossing area at the Hungurfit track was one of the most beautiful remote places I’ve seen in Iceland.
After finishing driving through the river streams area, we arrived at the crossroads which connect the two main detours (left and right) at their other endpoint. Afterwards the road continues into the steep hill and as far as I remember there were two paths available – one steeper but with better ground and one less steep but with big holes and worse terrain. I don’t remember which route we chose, but none of them was easy. We had to drive very slowly, though steadily with all our 4×4 assistants turned on and yet still the drive was scary and at times we really felt our 33” Land Cruiser drives on the edge of its capabilities. But we made it.
Many small to medium river crossings are an amazing part of the Hungurfit track
Although it started to get darker already (and thus much scarier) the views along the road were amazingly beautiful and one of their kind. The surrounding landscapes were breathtaking. This drive’s gonna stay long in my memories 🙂 There are different kinds of steep and narrow terrains, ascents, descents and even a drive in very narrow and deep tracks which you have to exactly follow meter by meter to not get yourself bumped away out of this world. We had thought this was the worst. No, it wasn’t 🙂
River crossing
We arrived at the pretty fast flowing river, which didn’t look shallow at all. And the crossing was wide. This was the point where I was seriously considering turning back even with our 33” Land Cruiser with snorkel. I simply didn’t feel like wading this river nor by walking through it first, it just looked dangerous. And I didn’t know anything about it. No cars in the radius of a hundred of miles maybe. I contemplated a little and then I decided for the most rational option – to put on my wading socks, take my hiking poles and attempt to wade the river firstly by foot very very carefully.
After getting into the river I realized the current wasn’t as strong as I had thought and also the river wasn’t as deep as I had thought, so I was able to get almost to the middle of the crossing. At that point I pretty much knew our Land Cruiser should be able to make it. I came back to our car, turned on all the 4×4 support systems (low gear, differential lock) and went slowly for the crossing exactly in the way I waded by foot. And the crossing went well! To not look too brave – we (and I) were still scared as hell when doing the crossing 🙂 but we had made all the rational precautions to ensure that we should be able to make it.
Ascents and descents
So, the worst part behind us. Or no? Not really. Soon we arrived at the top of the steep descent with the Hungurfit hut already visible in the far distance in front of us. This had signaled we should be nearing the final part of the road. The descent didn’t look that bad only because of the steep slope. The main problem was the quality of the track – big sharp stones stuck out every few meters from the ground followed usually by even bigger holes – and all of this in a steep descent.
Surroundings of the Hungurfit track are also amazingly beautiful
There was actually a crossroad at this point with the left and the right track both ending at the same point. None of the tracks looked attractive, though. We eventually chose the right track. It was already almost dark and the descent again tested the abilities of our Land Cruiser hugely. We successfully avoided the biggest holes and sharpest stones and got successfully to the end of this passage.
The rest of the road was thankfully much easier. I remember one more river crossing which was shallow, thus without any problems. After driving next to the Hungurfit hut we finally arrived at the junction with F210, turned left and headed towards west end of F210. Still an hour of driving via F210, now completely in the dark. Interesting experience. However, we had already driven via this part of F210 on Day 2 of our trip, so we knew it should be OK and it was.
The Icelandic road system is pretty simple, yet very interesting. And so are most of the Icelandic roads. Stunningly beautiful, yet sometimes pretty difficult to drive through. The more difficult roads you go for, usually, also the more beautiful the surrounding landscapes are. For difficult roads (F-roads and dirt tracks) you have to prepare thoroughly in advance, though. And to do that, it’s also good to understand the Icelandic road system.
In the most simplified words possible – the more digits the road contains, the more difficult it is 🙂 If the road doesn’t even have a number, then it’s probably even the most difficult and unmaintained one.
The ring road
The ring road – the road no. 1. This is the main and the most famous road which leads around the entire Iceland. In good weather, you may drive it in any car.
Somewhere on the ring road.
The 2-digit roads
The two-digit roads, e.g. 54. These are the turns/detours from the ring road. Still paved and well-maintained roads. Sometimes may be steeper and narrower (e.g. in Westfjords). In winter, it’s highly recommended to drive a 4×4 car on them.
Road 60, or Vestfjarðavegur in Westfjords towards Dynjandi waterfall
The 3-digit roads
The three-digit roads, e.g. 939. These are the roads of worse quality / terrain / maintenance compared to the ring road and the two-digit roads. Usually, these are “dirty” roads, where you drive on the dust, or some kind of gravel, but they are still passable with a 2-wheel drive car in good weather conditions. That can’t be said about worse weather conditions, though – and winter. Always use a 4×4 when driving in worse conditions on three-digit roads.
Overview of Strandavegur, a.k.a. road 643
The three-digit roads vary in quality highly. Sometimes they have a lot of potholes and washboards. Sometimes they are narrow and steep. Sometimes they are just straight, good-quality roads that are just not completely paved. The three-digit roads never contain unbridged river crossings, though.
F-roads, e.g. F905. The most famous Icelandic roads are undoubtedly F-roads. Some are afraid about driving on them, some love them. All of you have probably read a lot about F-roads already so I’m not gonna go into general info.
Shortly, F-roads are highland roads that are too remote or too difficult to be paved or regularly maintained. Very often they contain unbridged river crossings of various sizes (though, not always, e.g. F985, F946, F347, …). F-roads may be (and often are) difficult also in many other aspects – steep, narrow, big holes, bad grip, big gravel, sharp stones, uneven ground, etc.
F899 Flateyjardalsvegur
It’s compulsory to drive the F-roads only with 4×4 cars. F-roads are also officially openonly in summer (usually July and August). It’s possible to drive the F-roads also outside of summer, however, there is no winter service, which means they are not maintained and most of the time they are virtually impossible to drive on. Outside of the summer, most of the F-roads are passable only by huge super jeeps and experienced drivers. Snow is one of the biggest road dangers in Iceland. See below the section explaining the difference between “impassable”, “closed” and “no winter service” road.
F-roads also often get closed due to bad weather, bad road conditions, too much rain etc. – see the section below – road alerts and weather alerts.
Most of the car rental insurance packages also do not cover many common damages which occur on F-roads (such as damaging the undercarriage/chassis of your vehicle). For example, there is only one company – Lotus car rental – which insures you also for water damage / river crossings. No other company does this!
Luckily, there’s an external insurance provider which can insure you against everything (except river crossings) for an affordable price, which we always use when renting cars in Iceland. RentalCover gives you better coverage for a lower price compared to local insurance packages. If you are interested in more details about how car rental insurance works in Iceland, we wrote an article about how to choose the best car rental insurance in Iceland.
We also wrote a detailed list of all F-roads to help you navigate through beautiful and difficult Icelandic highland roads.
F985 Vatnajokull glacier
Dirt tracks
Dirt tracks, e.g. Krakatindur. “Dirt tracks” is not the official name. It’s a term I use for unpaved non-F-roads which are still considered to be roads and are perfectly legal to drive on (in a proper vehicle and conditions). Most of them, you will not find on Google maps. But you should find all of them on the Icelandic map Iskort.
If the road isn’t marked as a “road” on this map and it doesn’t lead to any settlement/hut then it is forbidden to drive through it and it’s considered off-road driving (see the section below).
Some well-known dirt tracks in the south include the Krakatindur track (Krakatindsleið), Skaelingar track, Hungurfit track, and several more. The list is pretty long, though. We list some of the dirt tracks in our List of all F-roads. Most of these tracks do have names and if you arrive at their beginning you will find a metal or wooden sign next to it pointing towards a final destination (which is usually a hut or some locally well-known place).
These dirt tracks are the least maintained and often the most difficult Icelandic roads. Some insurance packages are not applicable at all. They are covered by RentalCover insurance packages, though. That’s why we always use RentalCover for insurance when renting cars in Iceland. These tracks are often steep, uneven, full of potholes, may contain big river crossings, there’s often no network coverage and the traffic is very scarce, meaning if anything happens, any help may be far away.
Between Skælingar track and Blautulón track to Langisjór
Moreover, many car rental companies explicitly forbid you to drive on Icelandic tracks. Even with 4×4 cars, it’s often forbidden. F-roads are allowed, but not dirt tracks. Always ask your car rental company and/or read your rental car terms and conditions! If you rent a super jeep, however, these tracks are usually allowed to drive on.
Please, be very careful and prepare well in advance when driving dirt tracks.
Never go during weather or road alerts.
Don’t go outside of summer.
Have backup plans ready, enough food and water.
Most importantly, take a proper car – a super jeep.
The most important thing to look at – and to begin with – are the weather and road alerts. You can find most of these summarized on the website www.safetravel.is. Weather-related alerts are also to be found on en.vedur.is. Road-related warnings are displayed on road.is.
Please always CHECK THESE FIRST. If everything is OK, then proceed with the planning of your trip further. These alerts appear all year round in various forms, so please read them daily.
F207 around Laki craters in rainy weather
For example, during our stay in August, it rained a bit more for 3 days and some of the roads became impassable even in the middle of the summer. We planned to cross the country via F26, only to realize the day before the trip that it was marked impassable due to high water level in the Hagakvisl river. We had to change our plans, but better to change your plans than to get your 50 000 Eur worth car rental drown in the river. Or worse – to end up in the river yourself.
The other day there was a strong wind warning for the Snaefelssnes peninsula, hence we decided not to travel there. All of these warnings are useful and can help you save time, nerves, health and money.
Impassable vs. Closed vs. No winter service
This is often mistaken by visitors. Usually, it goes like this:
The difference between the a) closed, b) impassable and c) no winter service road in Iceland
Let’s clear this up:
Impassable – this means the road is impassable for a typical visitor with a typical 4×4 car, i.e. impassable for virtually all tourists. But not for Icelanders with a super jeep and local experience. It is NOT forbidden to drive this road. BUT, the chances are (99%) you would not be able to drive it without help. An Icelandic guide can take you here, or you can use a special convoy service or a private sit-in guide. Even they can do it only in good conditions. Please don’t drive the impassable road yourself alone, you can die.
No winter service – this is very similar to “Impassable”, but it’s softer. No winter service means the road is NOT closed. BUT, (if this is the F-road) the chances are (50-90%) you would not be able to drive it without help. There may be 1-meter deep snow, fast-flowing unbridged rivers, or simply anything else because the road just isn’t maintained at all. Again, An Icelandic guide can take you here, or you can use a special convoy service or a private sit-in guide. Please don’t drive the “no winter service” F-road yourself alone, you can get injured. If it’s not an F-road, it’s slightly better but still can be dangerous to drive.
Closed – this is the only official sign which really makes it illegal to drive the road. No one can drive the closed road under any circumstances.
This is how an F-road in great condition looks like when it snows
Off-road driving
Off-road driving is illegal and strictly forbidden in Iceland. This is rule number one. If you drive off the road, you may get a hefty fine of several tens of thousands of Euros/Dollars. The reason is, Icelandic nature is very fragile, and if you e.g. drive through the moss, it may die completely and never grow again. But not everyone understands what off-road driving actually means.
What is off-road driving
If you drive away from any road – be it normal road, F-road, or any official Icelandic track
If there’s a puddle/water in the middle of the road and you drive away from the road (e.g. on a moss) to avoid it
Look at the picture below which depicts it nicely:
What is off-road driving in Iceland?
What is NOT off-road driving
Driving through a puddle in the middle of the road
Driving on the impassable / no winter service road (if you really stick to the actual road, if not, it’s illegal driving!)
Driving on the dirt track which is not on Google Maps and it’s not even an F-road, but it’s on Icelandic maps
The final ascent of the Hekla track.
The main roads and F-roads are not the only legal roads to drive on in Iceland. There are also “dirt tracks”, usually a road with clear tracks and a sign pointing to their endpoint (e.g. “Hekla”). It’s OK to drive there – BUT – they are usually very difficult (more than F-roads), require a big car and you will drive there entirely on your own responsibility. Check your car rental terms, the chances are it’s forbidden to drive a dirt track unless you rented a super jeep. More on the dirt tracks above.
If there are tracks on the ground, which you cannot find on any maps, nor a local Icelandic map and the tracks don’t lead to any hut / settlement, then this is illegal off-road driving and you are forbidden to do it. Hence, a good rule of thumb is – if you can’t find the road on any map – don’t drive there!
Krakatindur track near Hekla. Watch out for your car’s ground clearance!
Free maps of Icelandic roads
The easiest and most accessible set of maps for Iceland – available also for a free offline download – is Google maps. If you find the road on Google maps, 99% of the time you may drive there (of course except for road alerts and weather alerts which Google doesn’t have). Google maps don’t have all the Icelandic roads though and aren’t entirely precise. That’s why it’s good to combine them with local Icelandic maps:
Vegasja
vegasja.vegagerdin.is/eng/ is a great, updated, official source of all regular Icelandic roads and F-roads. This is a good and precise set of local Icelandic maps. It doesn’t have dirt tracks marked on it, though.
Vegasja – local updated online map of Iceland
Iskort
vefsja.iskort.is/ is probably the best set of online Icelandic maps I’ve found. They were recommended to me by my friend Haraldur – thank you for that. This map contains also almost all dirt tracks and thus is the most comprehensive Icelandic map source you may possibly find.
Iskort is the best local Icelandic map with all roads and dirt tracks.
Karta GPS
A great Icelandic road map mobile app is available also for free offline download. Content-wise it’s one of the greatest and you can use it as a navigation! It contains almost all of the roads, including dirt tracks and even a lot of hiking trails! Graphically, it’s maybe not that pleasant compared to the options above, but it serves its purpose well.
Videos of Icelandic roads
We tried to record all of the drives we made in Iceland recently. Subscribe to our Epic Iceland YouTube channel and get the newest videos first.
Highlands around Hekla are a unique area of remote and rough Icelandic nature almost untouched by tourists.
Map of our day around Hekla highlands
The weather forecast was not very favorable once again. So, we had to chase the weather yet another day. We were based in Hella and I had prepared several backup plans and alternative options for each day to stay flexible, as mentioned in our article – how to plan an Icelandic highlands road trip. On day 5 of our trip, however, the forecast showed rain at ALL of the places I had planned 🙂 Welcome to Iceland.
Nevertheless, there were no weather warnings, nor road closures, so we (I) definitely wanted to head out for some new adventures. I finally decided where to go based on the forecast showing probably the least rain in the area near Hekla, south of Landmannaleid (F225). Moreover, this day plan contained a lot of driving and you don’t care that much about rain when driving (unless it’s torrential, which it wasn’t).
From our accommodation located at the beginning of road 26, it took us only a couple of minutes to reach the junction with F225 road, Landmannaleid. Landmannaleid is an old highlands road that serves as a shortcut from Hella/Hvolsvollur to the Landmannalaugar area.
F225 Landmannaleið in rain
All the blogs and articles recommend taking the northern part of road 208 (previously F208) to reach Landmannalaugar. They claim this route is easier, faster, and safer. None of these is true in my opinion. F225 did undergo many road improvements, and it’s possible it will even be reclassified to 225 (without an “F”). Driving F225 was liking driving on a highway for me 🙂 It’s much more comfortable, more straight, less bumpy, with fewer potholes, and considerably fewer cars compared to 208 (F208) north.
Moreover, landscapes around F225 are 100x more beautiful than those around F208 north, which are pretty boring and there’s pretty much nothing to see. F225 is also much shorter and thus quicker than 208 north. Even Icelandic highland buses use F225 to reach Landmannalaugar – and they know why. The only disadvantage of road F225 is that it contains 2-3 little water streams that need to be crossed, but they were of minor size at the time of our visit (late August) and they never turn to big river crossings. Of course, it’s always best to adhere to all river crossing rules, but these fords shouldn’t be any problem even in a smaller 4×4 SUV like Suzuki Jimney.
F-roads and dirt tracks near Hekla
While F225 is a “highway F-road” in my opinion, this definitely cannot be said about other roads in the Hekla area. All the roads and tracks connecting to F225 are rough highlands roads and you will need a big 4×4 car to pass them safely. We wrote an article about which cars are suitable for F-roads and tracks around Hekla and similar. Hint – aim at least for a Land Cruiser – or better a raised super-jeep-like vehicle. I rented exactly a super-jeep-like vehicle (raised Land Cruiser with snorkel) to be able to pass all these roads safely.
Hekla track (F-road)
Our first stop after turning right to F225 was another turn right towards Hekla. There’s a track that leads around halfway to the top of Hekla. This means some gorgeous views when it’s not foggy. Definitely, a place we wanted to visit 🙂 Some (and Google as well) mark this road incorrectly as “Hekla F-road”. However, this is not an F-road! It’s just a dirt track, which means, the quality is even worse than for an F-road. Always check with your rental company if it allows for such roads, choose your car wisely and study the roads in advance. Mostly only super jeeps are allowed to drive the dirt tracks.
Beginning of the F-road to Hekla
This road is even marked on Google maps (unlike other dirt tracks in the area), so getting in the right direction shouldn’t be a problem. There are no river crossings on the Hekla road. The road consists mostly of ash and mould, is really bumpy, and gets pretty steep soon. The main difficulty with the road is undoubtedly its steepness – and big potholes on steep slopes. You need a 4×4 with big tires and a great grip on these tires to be able to make it all the way to the top through the potholes.
Hekla F-road near the top
That being said, with every additional meter climbed, the views get better and better. We eventually reached the point (the last kilometer or so of the road) where the slope was so steep that it looked really scary. We stopped at that point, parked our car next to the road on the only flat ground, and wanted to climb the rest of the road by walking. However, we could hardly get out of the car, because the wind blew so strongly, it wasn’t even possible to open the doors. After getting out of the car, we felt like we would be blown if we jumped a little, so we decided to get back to the car.
The final ascent of the Hekla F-road track.
I tried to persuade my wife to go to the top in our Land Cruiser – which would definitely make it – but she was too scared. The slope up to Hekla wasn’t only probably the steepest we’d seen at that time, but also very uneven, narrow, and full of potholes and other similar obstacles. Thus, I didn’t push it further and rather turned the vehicle and went back. Bye-bye Hekla, maybe next time.
Raudaskal crater
One of the “secret” and “impassable” places where guided tours in the highlands would take you is a Rauðaskál crater. You will not find Raudaskal in many guides or lists of to-visit-places because it’s still not much visited and thus also not touristy at all. Surprisingly, Raudaskal is not hard to access at all. Of course, you need a 4×4 and have a proper map to find it. But there are no river crossings on the way and you can make it to Raudaskal in basically any 4×4.
Rauðaskál crater, often marked as a “hidden” spot.
Here is a map of Raudaskal. After a few kilometers of driving the F225 from the west, you simply turn right towards “Hekla F-road” and then, instead of continuing straight/right towards Hekla, you turn left. A few hundred meters from this left turn there’s another left turn and you will quickly find yourself at improvised gravel parking in front of Rauðaskál. There have been issues of illegal offroad driving in the past – drivers drove right on the edge of the Raudaskal crater – which is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. You need to leave your car at the gravel parking spot and continue by walking. There’s no road at the edge of the crater.
Raudaskal crater map
Raudaskal crater is one of these lunar, out of this world and completely remote places, not yet discovered by hoards of tourists. Its green and red colors and surreal surroundings are both unique and stunning at once. It’s possible to walk a while around Rauðaskál, however, we had a really strong wind during our visit so it didn’t feel safe at all to approach the edge of the crater. Thus, we rather observed the crater from a safe distance – which I recommend everyone to do as well. There are no ropes, nor any safety barriers. This is still a pretty wild place.
Krakatindur track – Krakatindsleið
Rainy Krakatindur track
Next on my list of unexplored Icelandic dirt tracks was a track named Krakatindur. Krakatindur is an older volcano/mountain in the middle of the highlands south of F225 and north of Landmannalaugar. There are several dirt tracks in this area and the Krakatindur track is one of the best known out of them. As the name suggests it leads to and around legendary Krakatindur mountain. Once again – this is not an F-road! It’s just a track, which means, the quality is even worse than for an F-road. Please carefully check with your car rental company if you can drive it.
Krakatindur track near Hekla. Watch out for your car’s ground clearance!
Krakatindur track starts right next to road F225 and next to the detour to Raudaskal. It is a narrow track in the huge moss area surrounded by hills, moss and absolute silence. It’s impossible to drive the road fast because it has many holes, little and bigger slopes, twists, turns and all of those even combined together to give you a hard time in some passages. Here is a map of Krakatindur road – Krakatindsleið.
Legendary Krakatindur mountain
Nonetheless, the Krakatindsleid road is picturesque, and more so are its surroundings. For highlands track lovers, this one is a must. We’ve done the track in a raised Land Cruiser (33” Cooper discoverer tires) and the car felt just right for the road. We had seen also one Dacia Duster on this road, but in my opinion, Duster is simply too small for the Krakatindur track and I consider it irresponsible driving in the Duster in here. Come only with a large 4×4!
Crazy Krakatindur F-road track – where to now?
There are no river crossings on the Krakatindur track, but remember, the road is not easy to drive on. Our aim was to finish at the north-east part of the road which is located next to Raudfossar. We firstly passed Krakatindur mountain (roughly in the middle) and then headed to Raudfossar area. At times, there were some pretty big holes at the track, testing the ground clearance of our Land Cruiser pretty well. Eventually, we arrived at Raudfossar gravel car park.
Raudfossar
Another of the “hidden gems” we wanted to explore in this part of the Icelandic highlands was the not that much known Raudfossar waterfall. We were surprised to arrive at the little gravel car park to find there 5-6 cars already, which seemed a lot, given the place is still pretty unknown and hard to access. We then realized why this was the case – Krakatindur is not the only way leading to the Raudfossar trail. The turn to Raudfossar is located closely to the main F225 Landmannaleid road, so it’s actually pretty easy to access from F 225. And that’s how all these cars got here.
Raudafoss, a.k.a. Raudfossar, hiking trail
The rain didn’t get any better at this point, rather the opposite – not only wind, but now also more rain. All that in 5°C in the middle of August. Welcome to Iceland once again 🙂 My wife really didn’t feel like going for a hike in this kind of weather, so she stayed in the car. I put on all my wind and waterproof layers and went for the hike towards Raudfossar. This was supposed to take me some 20 minutes one way (still unpleasant with the wind blowing the cold rain into my face). But I didn’t feel cold, nor I was wet, thanks to the layers, so the hike was doable.
Rauðufossar, Raudfossar or Raudafoss – all the different names for the same picturesque waterfall.
Rauðufossar trail
After 10 minutes of walking on the well-trodden path through the giant moss field, I was already able to spot Raudafoss in the distance. Beautiful sight in beautiful surroundings. It’s roughly 2-3km from the car park and it took me roughly 20-30 minutes to reach Raudfossar. The last part of the trail is slightly steep (a couple in front of me even used hiking poles), but for me it was manageable also without the poles. It was definitely much much easier compared to e.g. parts of the Fimmvorduhals hike.
Amazing views from the hiking trail next to Raudfossar (Raudafoss)
Raudfossar waterfall is very unique with all its orange colors and I definitely do recommend doing this short hike. Even in unpleasant weather the short hike to Raudfossar was doable without problems, when dressed properly. Raudfossar definitely belongs to one of my favorite Icelandic waterfalls.
Raudufossafjoll
The trail towards Raudfossar doesn’t end at Raudfossar, though. You may continue to pursue the source of all these orange colors and orange-colored water in Raudfossar. That’s what I did. In the beginning, I was just curious what will be the view like if I climb the nearby hill right next to Raudfossar. I climbed the hill right of Raudfossar and the view over the entire moss area was amazing (see picture above). There’s also a big crater hidden in that way, which you will be able to spot only after climbing the hill.
Hiking trail between Rauðufossar and Rauðufossafjöll
The trail then continues along the water streams further ahead. I didn’t have any idea if it was worth going forward or not. I met a British couple and asked them if the trail is worth continuing and they replied “absolutely, it’s amazing”. I was too curious not to continue after these words 🙂 However, I wasn’t sure how long will it take me to reach the end of the trail. I went anyway, with my wife still waiting in the car.
The end of the Raudfossar hiking trail, a stream called Rauðufossafjöll
The trail continued into the new and new valleys, new and new moss fields, over new and new water streams. I don’t know why I had thought it will end in a few minutes, but it didn’t :)) The further I got, the less I wanted to turn back before reaching the end. Eventually I finally reached the end of the trail in around 1 hour, which was much longer than I expected. And I hiked at my full speed, which I don’t consider to be slow.
That being said – it takes around 3 hours from the car park to do the entire Raudfossar – Raudafossafjoll round trip. Or around 1 hour if you want to go for the waterfall only.
Raudufoss stream source – Raudufossafjoll
There’s an oval orange source of all these orange water streams at the end of the trail. There’s also another cute little orange waterfall. The entire area fits well into the moon-like landscapes of this part of highlands. Was it one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen in Iceland? Probably not. Was it worth hiking the extra 1 hour one-way? Probably yes, the area is very nice.
Blahylur (Hnausapollur) lake
During our last visit, we had found out that probably the most beautiful crater lake near Landmannalaugar was supposed to be Ljotipollur and we were happy to see it and admire it, being entirely alone there. This just confirmed our thoughts that Ljotipollur was a very good option when searching for beautiful, non-touristy places. We had not gone for any other lakes at that time, though. This time I wanted to explore also another, supposedly more touristy, crater lake – Bláhylur also known as Hnausapollur.
If you have time, nice weather and a good camera, you may take a picture like this one from Blahylur. We had none of those 3 so we took a picture below 😀
Hnausapollur, a.k.a. Bláhylur int not that good weather
Blahylur (Hnausapollur) is located already on 208 (F208) north. It’s also possible to get very close to Hnausapollur by driving. You don’t need any special 4×4 to visit them, basically, any SUV should be enough, even Suzuki Jimny or Dacia Duster. Blahylur lake is beautiful and pretty much comparable to Ljotipollur, yet a bit different. We didn’t even meet many fellow tourists there (maybe due to rainy weather?). Blahylur lake is also definitely one of the places which are fine to visit in the rain because it is easy to access and does not require extensive walking.
Gjain
View over the entire Gjain area – hobbit land 🙂
After driving and exploring F-roads and dirt tracks around the Hekla area, the weather still didn’t get any better with rain and fog still in place. Hence, we decided to go and see one of the more touristy spots that was situated nearby (and we hadn’t been there yet) – Gjain. From my own Icelandic research, I had never found Gjain particularly interesting, but several visitors praised it for being beautiful, so we decided to go and to form our own opinion.
Everything is smaller in Gjáin. Especially waterfalls.
There’s an easy gravel road leading towards Gjain, without any river crossings. It’s bumpy, so cars with really low ground clearance may struggle a bit, but definitely doable for everyone. I had thought before, that Gjain is a larger natural area, but it’s actually pretty small. To us, it seemed like a hobbit land. Everything was smaller in Gjain than at other similar Icelandic places. Smaller waterfalls, smaller lakes, smaller rivers, smaller islands, shorter trails. Like a huge miniature of the Icelandic countryside.
One of the waterfalls in Gjáin
Nevertheless, Gjáin is a nice, short, stop when going to/from the Landmannalaugar area and/or Haifoss. If you don’t like it, you may simply leave earlier and it will not cost you a lot of time. Gjain doesn’t belong to one of our favorite places in Iceland, but we still do find it interesting and some other visitors even amazing. It’s also one of the spots which are easy to visit even if it rains.
Stong Viking House
The rain still poured persistently, so we went for our last stop, which lied very close to Gjain, and was actually a part of it probably – old Viking house. It’s actually a reconstruction of the real old Viking house with some parts of the base of the building still being original. Interesting, though not my cup of tea 🙂 But, my wife seemed to be thrilled.
Laki craters are an amazing remote place in the Icelandic highland in the south. Climbing Mt. Laki and seeing the remnants of the 250-year-old eruption is an unforgettable experience. The eruption changed European history and we were able to feel that pretty lively when visiting Laki volcanos.
We had beautiful weather during the first 3 days of our trip. Then the weather got worse, exactly according to the forecast. In our case, this meant some rain at most of the places in the south and clouds everywhere. Light rain is still good, unless the visibility worsens, i.e. unless fog appears. Because once it does, any place with a view won’t serve you any view.
Our summer season in Iceland was very specific, with the south having colder, cloudier, and more rainy weather compared to the north and the east. And this persisted throughout most of the summer. For our trip, we planned 9 days in the south and 9 days in the north and the east. So, the question was – with 3 already nice days – what to do with the 6 remaining days which were supposed to be rather rainy?
F207 around Laki craters in rainy weather
Luckily, the rain often isn’t everywhere. This means, that even in a rainy forecast, it’s often possible to find some places where it either doesn’t rain a lot or it even doesn’t rain at all. And that’s what we actually successfully achieved – to “chase the non-rainy skies”. We wrote an entire article about that – “How to find a nice weather in Iceland”, feel free to read it.
This was exactly the case also on Day 4 of our trip – rainy forecast for most of the south. Yet, we managed to find some local regions where the forecast didn’t show the rain. One of them was Laki craters.
Almost everyone knows where the Fjadrargljufur canyon (Justin Bieber canyon) lies. Yet, almost nobody knows where Laki craters are 🙂 Even despite the fact that, in my opinion, Laki craters are 100x times more interesting than the over-touristy Fjadrargljufur canyon. And surprisingly, the road to Laki craters is located right next to the Fjadrargljufur canyon.
Laki craters roads map
F206 and F207 to Laki
F206 – Lakavegur and F207 – Lakagigavegur are F-roads leading to and around Laki craters. Roads are quite long and you have to drive slowly on them, because of their uneven surface and narrow paths. I drove there twice this summer – once in light rain and total fog, the second time in cloudy weather, but with good visibility. If it’s foggy, you definitely have to slow down even further.
F206 to Laki craters in rain and fog
If it’s not too rainy or it has not rained too much in previous days/weeks (rising water levels in the rivers too much), even an ordinary 4×4 like Dacia Duster should be enough for the road – when driven carefully. To be almost 100% sure to pass without any damage, I, however, do recommend bigger 4×4 like Land Cruiser or Defender.
The roads lead through various different landscapes. Some of them are full of moss. Some of them are just huge gravel areas. And some of them are already part of a volcanic crater area near actual Laki craters. The landscapes around F206 and F207 leading to Laki are beautiful and I do recommend taking your time to go and see them.
F207 river crossing (road to Laki craters)
There are two medium-sizeriver crossings on roads F206 and F207. One is on F206 leading to the ranger’s hut a.k.a. tourist information center next to Mt. Laki. The other river crossing is near the end of the F207 loop around the Laki craters area. Both F206/F207 river crossings are similar – the water is calm (no strong current) and the riverbed is pretty even and flat. The only issue is with the water level which varies. At the time of our visits, however, water levels were very low, making it an easy ford. Except for these two crossings, there are several other smaller ones.
How long is a trip to Laki craters?
The answer highly depends on 1) weather, 2) your driving skills, 3) how much time you want to spend in the main Laki area. It took us roughly 2 hours of quick driving in foggy weather to get from the beginning of F206 to Mt. Laki. To finish F207 and come back via F206 count for around 2,5 hours of quick driving. Add to that the time you want to spend in the area (2-4 hours) and you will arrive at almost a full day trip 🙂
Fagrifoss
There’s a beautiful stop roughly in the middle of F206 towards Laki craters – Fagrifoss waterfall. For me, this was one of the most interesting waterfalls with a very special remote atmosphere. Fagrifoss car park is located a few meters to the right from the main F206 road (when coming from Kirkjubaerklaustur). You should find it easily because it’s basically the only detour to the right in the middle of F206. You can also try to locate it on the map.
Fagrifoss – a beautiful waterfall next to F206 on a way towards Laki craters
There’s a big gravel car park next to Fagrifoss, where we even saw 2 buses parking (not both at one time). Most of the time, however, you should be here almost alone. It’s then a short 5-minute walk from the car park towards Fagrifoss via a paved path and a little gate (close it after passing). There’s even a viewing deck built over the waterfall, so you can enjoy it from a very nice viewpoint.
During our first visit to the waterfall, Fagrifoss was partially covered in the mist. The atmosphere was still very special though and I would recommend seeing it even in a partial fog. During our second visit to the waterfall, we didn’t have any fog and were able to see Fagrifoss and its surroundings in their entirety.
Laki craters – the main area
Laki craters area map
When I was planning the trip to Laki craters, I was struggling to find specific information about the Laki craters area. How big and long is the Laki area? What exactly is at Laki craters? How much time should we devote to Laki?. This is one of the reasons why I decided to write an article about it more in detail.
Once you reach the crossroads of the roads F206 (Lakavegur) and F207 (Lakagigavegur) you have arrived at the Laki craters area. The area is full of little old volcanoes, lava, ash, and moss. The circular road F207 leads around the area. The road is OK to drive through even in smaller SUV like Dacia Duster (during summer, if there are no weather alerts). There are some small car parks along the road where you may stop your car and take some pictures or just admire what you see.
F207 – Lakagigavegur
Except for these “car stops” there’s also the main Laki craters area. You will reach it the soonest if you turn right at the crossroads of F206 and F207 (which most visitors do). The main Laki craters area is located just below Mt. Laki. There’s a map of the area, ranger’s hut, toilets, and visitors’ center right below Mt. Laki. This is the main starting point to explore the area.
Laki crater hikes
The two main hikes in the Laki craters area are the visitors’ trail and the trail to the peak of Mt. Laki. If the visibility is good, I definitely do recommend you climb up the Mt. Laki.
Mount Laki trail, a quick hike with some solid elevation
Mt. Laki
The views from the top of Mt. Laki are simply breath-taking. This was one of the most amazing places I’ve been to in Iceland. Looking at many small 200-year old eruptions from the bird’s eye perspective was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The hike is a bit steep but short and not dangerous at all in a normal weather. There’s a well-marked path all the way to the top, which took us 15 minutes to complete at a quick pace.
Mount Laki views
With each step up, the views are getting only better and better and once you reach the top you will be rewarded with an unbelievable 360~ scenery. During our first visit to the Laki craters we had foggy weather and little visibility, so climbing the mountain made no sense. However, we went for Mt. Laki also for the second time, during the good visibility and we don’t regret going there twice at all!
Visitors’ trail
The visitors’ trail was the second most interesting hike in our opinion. It’s a really easy 30-minutes long walk (rather than a hike) via out-of-this world little old volcanoes covered with green moss. It serves as an introduction to the entire area and has a unique atmosphere attached to it.
Laki craters visitors’ trail – the easiest hike
The Laki visitors’ trail begins a hundred meters left to the ranger’s hut and there’s a small car park right next to it. Thus, if you want to save 5 minutes, you may drive from the car park in front of the tourist center to this little car park right next to the trail.
Laki crater lakes
There are several lakes located in the Laki craters area. Two of them are easily accessible by car and/or walking and one of the Laki lakes (Tjarnargigur) is really picturesque (and recommended by rangers to visit).
If you continue in the counter-clockwise direction via F207, you will arrive at the Tjarnargigur lake on your left and at the Lambavatn lake on your right. There’s an improvised gravel car park in front of the Tjarnargigur lake where you have to leave your car and continue further by walking. On the other hand, you may drive all the way to the Lambavatn lake with your car.
Tjarnargigur lake at F207 – a beautiful spot near Laki craters
It takes about 10 minutes of walking from the car park to arrive at the Tjarnargigur lake. We went there in light rain and foggy weather and the surrounding landscapes shined in the green color of the moss. The lake is very nice, peaceful and easy to visit. It, of course, is worth the little detour.
Our experience with Laki craters
During our first visit, this was one of the very few places in the south where it wasn’t supposed to rain all day. Yet, it was still foggy. We had to drive slowly and carefully all the way from Fjadrargljufur canyon, next to Fagrifoss to Laki craters. The visibility was bad, the roads narrow, twisty and full of gravel. In foggy and rainy weather, the drive is not that pleasant and feels a bit long. It’s still a surreal experience, though, given the beautiful Icelandic landscapes coming out of the mist from time to time.
F206, Lakavegur, in rain
We made a stop at Fagrifoss, being entirely alone there and enjoyed it in a partial mist. Yes, we couldn’t see it entirely clear, but still it was beautiful.
Then we continued towards Laki craters and crossed the only medium-sized river there without any problems (low water level at the time of our visit + adhering to river crossing rules). Soon after the river crossing, we arrived at the crossroads. This is where the Laki circle begins and road F207 – Lakagigavegur starts. You may continue in either of the directions, but most of the visitors (and us as well) go right first. If you turn right, you will reach the tourist information center (a.k.a. ranger’s hut) with toilets and map of the area after some 20 minutes long drive.
F207 to Laki in rain
At that time the crater area full of old lava popping out of the moss already starts to reveal in front of you. Once we arrived at the ranger’s hut, the ranger immediately welcomed us, showed us the map of the area, and suggested doing the short visitor’s trail and finishing the Laki circle of road F207. He also suggested making a stop at Tjarnargigur lake, which, in his opinion, is one of the most beautiful places in the Laki area. On the other hand, the ranger suggested not to climb Mt. Laki due to foggy weather and no visibility from the top.
Laki craters when it rains
We followed the ranger’s advice and went for the visitor’s trail located a few hundred meters left, up the hill, from the visitor’s center. Laki visitor’s trail is basically a nice, easy and short walk in between the old lava and little craters created during the Laki eruption in late 1700’s. It was an amazing experience even in foggy weather and light rain. Then we tried to climb at least a bit towards Mt. Laki and realized the ranger was right and we couldn’t see a thing as we progressed towards the peak. Hence, we decided to turn back, get into the car and continue towards Tjarnargigur lake.
Laki craters in rain (view from the Mt. Laki trail)
The F207 road is just a bumpy dirt road, without any huge obstacles so we drove it all the way to the Tjarnargigur lake without any problems. It’s roughly a 10-minute walk from the little car park towards Tjarnargigur lake. The lake is located in a very fragile vegetation environment, full of stunningly green moss, and once again has a pretty special atmosphere. Definitely worth making this short detour.
After the visit to the Tjarnargigur lake, we continued to finish the circular F207 Lakagigavegur. There we encountered our second medium-sized river crossing which was pretty similar to the first one and we didn’t have any problems with the ford. Short before the end of the F207, there’s even a small campsite where you may spend the night if interested in that. Not our case, we continued back via the same road F206 to Kirkjubaerklaustur.
There are 2 or 3 no-name roads other than F206 and F207 as detours from these roads which lead either west or east of Kirkjubaerklaustur. These roads are considerably less maintained, so we decided not to go for them this time and used the ordinary F207 and F206 to get back. Maybe next time.
Laki craters in nice weather
Two weeks after our first visit to Laki craters (which was really foggy and with an all-day-long drizzle) we decided to go see them again. We didn’t climb Mt. Laki on our first visit, due to the fog and no visibility at all. This time we wanted to climb it and see the views! We finished all our activities on that day at 4 PM and the weather was great. Thus, we made a quick decision to hurry up and headed directly to Mt. Laki. Laki-ly, by 6 PM we had our car already parked in front of Mt. Laki.
View from Mount Laki at Laki craters on a beautiful day
The hike to the summit is really quick in nice weather. And the views are more than just stunning. Seeing the earth “opening” in front of our eyes is an unforgettable experience. It was definitely worth it going to see Laki again in clear weather.
The aim of this guide is to help you assess the weather conditions at a particular place during your visit in Iceland. It works best in the summer season (June to September), although we believe there’s a lot of useful info also for the other seasons. Always check first the safetravel.is website and road.is for any travel and road warnings – these are priority number one.
In the winter, please additionally to all rules below – carefully consider also snow conditions and shorter daylight hours.
Beginner’s mistakes in the Icelandic weather forecast
1. “The forecast shows rain all of the time!”
Us: OK, what did you look at?
He: “What, what? The forecast!”
Us: OK, but what forecast? 🙂
He: “Like what, what? On google”.
The forecast on Google is from weather.com and this forecast sucks entirely. It usually shows rain everywhere almost all of the time, because there’s a CHANCE it can rain. Yes, there’s a chance everywhere and all of the time in Iceland that it can rain 🙂 But such a forecast is useless. Please when looking at the forecast, look at the official Icelandic meteorological office website en.vedur.is. This is the most precise forecast.
2. “I looked at en.vedur.is and it shows rain in the south!”
OK, once again, what did you look at? This general country forecast?
General local Icelandic weather forecast screen
This is a good indication of the entire weather situation in the country, but the weather may change rapidly also LOCALLY. In order to find out what the weather might be at your points of interest, look at the regional/local forecast of the specific place you plan to visit.
3. “I looked at the specific place where I plan to go at en.vedur.is and it shows rain!”
OK, good, and did you look at the intensity of the rain? Did you look specifically at the rain forecast itself, not just a general weather forecast? There’s a section called “precipitation” at en.vedur.is which you should study precisely.
Your best chances for no rain are at Snaefellsnes. Although, it may rain there as well, of course, but probably less than elsewhere.
4. “I looked at the weather forecast and the next week should be beautiful”
OK, good for you, but please don’t rely on a 1-week ahead forecast. This is simply too long for Iceland to hold without changes. It’s more than possible that the 1-week ahead forecast will change entirely. Unfortunately, it is not possible to plan according to the weather that far ahead. In our experience, the forecast becomes very reliable some 1-2 days before the planned date.
5. “The forecast for Fimmvorduhals hike for tomorrow shows nice weather and no rain”
OK, great. The chances are, you are all set for the beautiful day. But never forget to check the WIND as well. The wind may be very strong and dangerous, especially in the mountains. If the weather is generally nice in the summer, the wind usually isn’t that strong. But it may be. So please, better make sure and check the specific wind forecast as well.
Where to find the precise Icelandic weather forecast
In the above lines, we tried to present some examples of how NOT to look at the Icelandic weather forecast. We also mentioned some ways how the forecast can be improved. Let’s summarize them here. So, in the first place – where to find the precise Icelandic weather forecast? At en.vedur.is. This is the official forecasting website of the Icelandic meteorological office and you will hardly find any better for Iceland.
Next thing – don’t look just at the general forecast – icons of sun/clouds/rain, temperature, wind speed. Go more into detail.
Firstly, search for the location of your interest and look at that particular region:
Regional forecast
Secondly, look at the dedicated precipitation forecast and then at the dedicated wind forecast. These are the most precise estimates of rain and wind throughout the country and at your place of interest. We were surprised to realize how many visitors don’t know about these two forecasts at all:
LEFT: This is how a “rain forecast” may look like in detail. Many places with no rain at all! RIGHT: a bit windy weather, better avoid Snaefellsnes!
Thirdly, don’t plan too much ahead (like 1-week or more). The most precise and reliable forecasts are the ones 1-2 days before the desired date.
Fourthly, look at the evolution in time. If the forecast shows no rain just during a particular hour, but rain during all other times, the chances are you will experience rain anyway. On the other hand, if the forecast shows rain just at a particular hour and no rain for the rest of the day, the chances are you will not experience rain at all.
How to read the Icelandic weather forecast
Let’s say you plan to do the Fimmvorduhals hike the day after tomorrow (as we planned here). How to find out as precisely as possible what weather to expect?
First of all, let’s precisely locate the Fimmvorduhals trail in the map of en.vedur.is. After short research you should realize it’s about here:
Fimmvorduhals hike located on a general weather forecast map
This (and a few kilometers around) is the place you should be looking at in all of the forecasts. So let’s now locate it in the more detailed regional forecast at en.vedur.is:
Fimmvorduhals hike located on a local weather forecast map.
Better, but we still don’t know where exactly the rain showers will be and what the wind will be like. So let’s firstly look at the rain forecast:
Fimmvorduhals rain forecast evolution
What we aim for is no rain (default brown-pinkish ground color) or little rain (occasional yellow color). Anything other is just a stronger rain. Always scroll in time throughout your desired day. If there’s no rain at all during all different times, the chances are there will be no rain also in reality.
In the example above, there’s actually no rain at the Fimmvorduhals pass at all. There’s a lot of rain nearby, though. Thus, the chances are, that most likely there should be no rain – if the rain area doesn’t move to the west. Now let’s do the same also with the wind forecast:
Fimmvorduhals wind forecast evolution
Here we aim for the lightest green color. The darker it gets, the worse. Ideally, it should stay at green, or at worse blue – this is already a considerable wind you will feel. Anything worse might be already dangerous. Same as with the rain forecast, please analyze the wind throughout the day. In the example above the wind should be fine.
What if it rains everywhere?
If you look at the detailed local forecast – as we described above – most of the time you are able to find places with little or no rain. This is the strategy we used and thanks to it experienced almost no rain during our last 18-day long trip. Even if the forecast stated rain for most of the country.
Upper part of the hike on Sveinstindur near Langisjor lake on a foggy day with slight rain
Nevertheless, sometimes there are really days when it simply rains almost everywhere and almost during the entire day. Does it mean your day is completely lost then? Not at all. Although your options are a bit narrowed down, you still have plenty of them. We wrote an entire article about what to do when it rains in Iceland.
Weather and road alerts
The most important thing to look at – and to begin with – is the weather and road alerts. You can find most of these summarized on the website www.safetravel.is. Weather-related alerts are also to be found on en.vedur.is. Road-related warnings are displayed on road.is.
Please always CHECK THESE FIRST. If everything is OK, then proceed with the planning of your trip further. These alerts appear all year round in various forms, so please read them daily.
For example, during our stay in August, it rained a bit more for 3 days and some of the roads became impassable even in the middle of the summer. We planned to cross the country via F26, only to realize the day before the trip that it was marked impassable due to the high water level in the Hagakvisl river. We had to change our plans, but better to change your plans than to get your 50 000 Eur worth car rental drown in the river. Or worse – to end up in the river yourself.
The road F26 becomes impassable in August due to heavy rain.
The other day there was a strong wind warning for the Snaefellsnes peninsula, hence we decided not to travel there. All of these warnings are useful and can help you save time, nerves, health, and money.
We hope this guide helped you at least a little bit with the planning of your trip. If you have any questions or ideas, always feel free to post them in the comments section.
I’ve seen several articles which claimed to be the “Fimmvorduhals hike guide” but they still didn’t contain all information I needed and didn’t answer all my questions. I’m not saying they are not useful, they are just not detailed enough. For example, I couldn’t clearly find out how long the hike will take us, getting some very mixed estimates ranging anywhere from 6 hours to 2 days. This and more I tried to put together in 1 comprehensive article about the Fimmvorduhals hike.
It is said to be one of the most beautiful Icelandic hikes located in the spectacular southern Highlands of Iceland. And I can only confirm that it really is. At least in nice weather 🙂 Otherwise, it may easily turn into a long and unpleasant struggle.
Fimmvorduhals pass is a mountain pass located between the two glaciers between Skogar (yes, Skogafoss waterfall) and Basar hut in Thorsmork. And this is exactly the trail of the hike – the traverse from Skogar to Thorsmork or the other way round. Skogar is best known for its beautiful waterfalls, while Thorsmork is famous for its hard-to-access natural beauties, valleys, rivers, glaciers, and mountains. And the Fimmvorduhals hike is full of everything of these.
The trail around Fimmvorduhals snowfields
For any Icelandic enthusiast, the Fimmvorduhals hike is a must-go. It proudly belongs to the greatest spots in the Icelandic Highlands. It’s not a question of if, but rather a question of when. Of course only if you feel like doing it – because it’s not that easy (but also not any horror – in good weather) and it takes 7 to 12 hours to complete – based on your skills.
When to go
This is a crucial decision. I changed the planned day for the hike 4 times. This meant 4 times contacting the bus company for changing the tickets and 4 times explaining this to my foreign hiking buddy Vicente 🙂 But it was well worth it. If the weather doesn’t look good, please don’t go and better change your plans / reschedule the hike to a different day.
The basic answer is easy – in summer only. Some parts of the hike are covered by snow all year round, so you cannot avoid snow completely. But there are spots that are impassable if there’s too much snow and there are spots that are easily passable even when walking on the snow. So, the more specific answer would be – ideally in the second half of July or in August. At this time, the last winter’s snow should be already melted and the “next year’s” snow hasn’t arrived yet.
Descent from Fimmvorduhals craters of Magni and Modi to Thorsmork
Generally, the trail is open for hiking from somewhere around the beginning of June to somewhere around the middle of September. But the more away you go from July/August, the more difficult the hike will be. Of course, it all depends on your hiking skills. If you are used to hiking in snow, wind, cold, and/or rain, you have more flexibility in terms of when to go.
Even in July/August – please look at the forecast and look at the safetravel.is for any warnings. Although Fimmvorduhals is not Mt. Everest, it can get bad in unfavorable weather. How to read the weather forecast? We wrote an entire article about how to find good weather in Iceland, feel free to read it. Besides that, a short summary of it is below in the “Weather” section.
Weather
Ideally, you want to naturally aim for no rain, no wind, and clear skies. If this is the case, you have already won. But in Iceland, this is not the case most of the time 🙂 So what you at minimum want to aim for is little rain and little wind. Although fog is unpleasant because your view isn’t the best, it isn’t life-threatening, as is often the case with wind and rain.
It’s important to study the forecast at en.vedur.is. This is an Icelandic meteorological station and you will not get any other foreign forecast which is more precise. Forget about Google’s weather.com, sorry for saying that, but that one is complete bullshit. At en.vedur.is don’t look just at the general forecast – go into the detailed forecast for rain, detailed forecast for the wind, and look specifically at the Fimmvorduhals pass. We described this in detail in our Iceland weather forecast article.
Hiking the Fimmvorduhals waterfall way
Last but not least – looking at the 1 week ahead forecast is (almost) completely useless 🙂 The weather changes very quickly, oftentimes in minutes/hours, 1-week ahead forecast will almost surely change. The forecast which most of the time worked pretty well in our case was 1-2 days ahead forecast. This one didn’t change that much.
The word of caution – even the best forecast doesn’t guarantee you the weather it states. Reality may be better or worse (usually worse in Iceland). So please be prepared for it. And anytime you feel unsafe to proceed, better don’t proceed and turn back. Accommodation/money loss is always more reasonable than health loss. One part of the hike – the part exactly between the two glaciers – is the part where the weather is usually the most unpredictable, changes quickly, and usually is worse than forecasts.
How to get to the Fimmvorduhals hike
Another crucial question after the choice of the season, date, and day is a question of how to get to and from the Fimmvorduhals hike. Do you have a rental car? Yes, you can drive to Skogar (or Thorsmork) then – but how to get back, if the hike ends 30 kilometers away? 🙂 Unless you have an (experienced) friend (with a big 4×4) waiting for you at the other end of the trail, you would need to take the bus or the guided Fimmvorduhals tour with transportation. Or stay overnight in accommodation in Thorsmork. The bus is usually the cheapest option.
If you Google the buses from/to Skogar and Thorsmork, you will soon realize you don’t have that many options. If you want to start in Skogar and end in Thorsmork (as we did, and most of the visitors as well) the first bus arrives at Skogar at 9:45 AM and the last bus leaves Thorsmork at 20:00 PM. This means that if you want to complete the Fimmvorduhals hike in 1 day, you need to do it in 10 hours. Period.
Hiking to Baldvinsskali hut
Here is the schedule of the Thorsmork buses. Beware, that the evening bus from Thorsmork runs only during the peak season. Otherwise, you have to reach out for the other options. These are:
Booking a night roughly at the halfway of the hike in the Baldvinsskali hut
Booking a night in Thorsmork – the closest option is Basár hut, the next option is Langidalur campsite and the furthest one (but maybe the most glamorous) is the Volcano huts in Husadalur
What I did was to drive with our car to Hvolsvollur and leave the car there at the big car park of N1 gas station. Then I took the bus to Skogar, which (as mentioned above) arrived shortly before 10 AM. Then we made the Fimmvorduhals hike (which took us roughly 8 hours in a medium-to-quick pace) and ended up at Basar hut before 7 PM. Finally, we took the same bus back from Basar hut to Hvolsvollur and I came back to our car at 10 PM in Hvolsvollur, thus making it all in 1 day.
It is possible to do the same also with Reykjavik as your start/endpoint, but add additional 2 hours each way (that’s what my friend Vicente has done).
Buses to and from Thorsmork and Skogar
As of the 2022 season, the only option to do the Fimmvorduhals hike in 1 day and come back to your accommodation is to
a) complete it under 10 hours, AND
b) depart from Reykjavik or Hvolsvollur/Hella.
The Fimmvorduhals bus schedule is located here. This 1-day loop can only be achieved during the peak season when the last bus from Thorsmork leaves as late as 8 PM.
The Fimmvorduhals bus is also called “the highland bus” and the tickets – although a bit misleading – work pretty well. You can buy 1 ticket which includes the round trip – i.e. either from Reykjavik/Hvolsvollur to Skogar + from Thorsmork back to Reykjavik/Hvolsvollur – or the other way round. The ticket from Reykjavik is roughly 20-30Eur more expensive compared to that from Hvolsvollur.
Bus to/from Thorsmork standing at Básar hut
After buying the ticket you also have to reserve your seats on the bus for a particular day and time by writing an email to the bus company. To sum it up, the entire process works like this:
You buy the ticket (free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure)
You write an email to the bus company with a specific date and time request (free changes up to 24 hours before departure)
I recommend booking in advance and then making changes a few days before if necessary due to weather. That’s what I had to do several times due to changing rain and wind forecasts. There are usually enough places on the buses (and if there’s a lot of tourists, they usually send more buses). That being said – yes, it’s good to book in advance, but changing a few days before the hike shouldn’t be a problem under normal circumstances.
If you already know beforehand that you can’t make it on time for the bus schedules, you may still book a night in either the Baldvinsskali hut or in Basar/Langidalur/Husadalur campsites. If they have free places, you may come there even without booking it in advance. Of course, booking in advance is recommended. But you can call there and ask a few days in advance for availability and decide based on that.
Best Fimmvörðuháls hike tours
Best Fimmvörðuháls hike guided tour by Icelandic Mountain Guides
Would you rather like to take a guided tour? The best Fimmvorduhals hike guided tour is undoubtedly operated by Icelandic Mountain Guides. We can more than just recommend this 5* local Icelandic company with amazing reviews and guides. If you don’t feel like hiking alone, Icelandic Mountain Guides specialize exactly in hiking tours, like Fimmvorduhals is.
1-Day Fimmvörðuháls guided tour
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6-Days combo Fimmvörðuháls + Laugavegur tour
By far the best Laugavegur hike guided tour by Icelandic Mountain Guides
This tour is the gem among all hiking tours in Iceland. You will see the most beautiful Icelandic landscapes and sleep in authentic Icelandic mountain huts along the way. All this accompanied by amazing guides who will take care of you all the time.
You can have a 5% discount for Icelandic Mountain Guides tours with the discount code: EPICICELAND23 (you can find the currently working promo code also here).
Length
The hike is 26 kilometers long (16 miles). How long does it take to complete it? This is the aspect that is kind of hard to estimate because everyone has a different pace. One American website stated that it took their entire family some 6-7 hours to finish the hike. This I find unbelievably fast (don’t know if they are superheroes or what), but it can be considered as a bottom estimate of the time.
On the other hand, some guys on the Alltrails app stated it took them around 12 hours to complete the hike. This is a bit long in my opinion, but it can be pretty much realistic if you have a slow hiking pace. So yes, the estimate to complete the entire hike is somewhere between 7 to 12 hours and depends on both the weather and your hiking skills.
Last part of the Fimmvorduhals hike
We’ve done the Fimmvorduhals hike in the perfect weather and it took us 8 hours to complete it, including small food breaks and several little photo pauses. If I had to assess our pace, I would say it was pretty quick in the beginning and then we slowed down considerably. So, to sum it up, our pace was probably medium-to-quick. This may change drastically in case of bad weather, though, so count on that, please.
This is also how I recommend doing the hike. It’s better to be quicker in the beginning, not make that many pauses and check the trail map about your status. If you realize that 3 hours have passed and you are already halfway through the hike (as we realized), then your pace is probably quick and you can slow down. And vice versa – if you realize that 5 hours have passed and you are halfway through the hike, then your pace is probably slower and you should hurry up to make it under 10 hours.
Who to go with
This may be a strange question for someone, but I’m gonna put it in here anyway 🙂 My wife didn’t feel like doing such a long and strenuous hike and I didn’t want to push her. On the other hand, I really wanted to do the hike. So how do we solve this situation? One of the options is to go alone. Yes, this is doable. We even met a girl our age who has done the hike alone. Still, I don’t recommend going alone. You never know what can happen during the hike and it’s always better to have a companion for a plethora of reasons.
Little streams in the beginning of the Fimmvorduhals trail
I knew I didn’t want to go alone for the trail I hadn’t already known. But I didn’t give up and I decided to find a company – via FB. There are many groups on Facebook devoted to Iceland, one of them particularly popular called “Travel Iceland”. I’m thankful to this group for useful Icelandic info and even for finding a hiking buddy for the Fimmvorduhals hike 🙂 And I was pretty lucky, because (only after we started the hike) I realized my hiking buddy Vicente was really well equipped and an experienced hiker.
Difficulty
I’m originally from Slovakia where we do have somewhat high (2500+ meters) mountains. I’m used to hiking, though I wouldn’t say I’m any good at it. I would consider the hike to be of medium difficulty. The trail itself is not that difficult. The first half of the trail is basically a long gravel/clay walk without any steep sections. The only real issue with the Fimmvorduhals hike might be its length – for someone this hike may be too long for 1 day. For me, it was just right and I still had some energy left after the finish.
The second half of the trail (after the hut) is slightly more technical, but except for one spot, I didn’t find it dangerous or highly difficult. This one spot is the 2nd hill after the Baldvinsskali hut (when going from the Skogar direction). There’s a steep slope with the ground consisting of a mix of clay, ice, and ash. The grip is not very good and the angle/slope is pretty steep. This is the only part where I felt unsafe and even scared a bit. But that may be my specific issue – I just don’t like steep slopes with bad grip and uneven terrains – like ice and ash. This is where hiking poles literally saved my life (or at least avoided a broken leg).
Resting after finishing the most difficult part of the hike
Snowfields were not any big issue for us, they were easily passable and not steep at all. No crampons were needed. I even took a pair with me, just to be sure, but I didn’t need to use them at all. Next, the only part of the hike with chains – the part after Modi and Magni volcanoes – wasn’t that dangerous in my opinion. Yes, the chains are a bit scary, or better said, the steep fall below them is a bit scary – but this part is short and thanks to the chains easily doable.
Last but not least, the famous Kattarhryggur pass – the “cat’s spine”, was maybe a bit scary because it was narrow, but otherwise it was not any difficult. The pass has firm and flat ground, so if the wind isn’t too strong it shouldn’t be an issue.
For some inexperienced hikers or visitors afraid of heights (like my wife) this hike may be too stressful. For medium+ experienced hikers used to heights, chains and mountain passes it is definitely doable, some may even consider it to be easy. It’s definitely long, though.
Clothes and equipment
I’m not much of a person who would advise you which jacket you should buy on Amazon 🙂 But I can definitely advise you to dress well for the Fimmvorduhals hike. What does “dress well” mean? Well, dress for any kind of weather – especially rain, wind, and cold. A waterproof layer (pants and jacket) is a must (at least in your backpack). Something to protect you from cold and wind is a must as well (some backup hat, gloves, jacket, etc.). You might not need any of these if the sun shines and the wind is non-existent, but they come priceless if the weather turns to the dark side.
The temperature during the summer hike usually ranges anywhere between 5°C-20°C (51F – 68F). If the wind blows badly and the sun doesn’t shine, you may easily feel like -5°C (23F) even in August, though! On the other hand, without wind, and with the sun shining, there were parts when we hiked in our T-shirts only.
Do you need hiking poles? For 98% of the trail I would say you don’t. BUT. For the steep section after the Baldvinsskali hut, I cannot imagine going without them. My friend Vicente, though, has done it without any hiking poles, but he’s a hiking machine :)). My final advice would be – better take them.
Views from the Fimmvorduhals into the Thorsmork valley
Do you need crampons? During the best time to go (mid-July to the end of August) you don’t need them at all. At other times it really depends. But the parts covered the most by snow are not very steep, so I wouldn’t say you need crampons under normal circumstances.
Anything other to take? Good shoes, sun cream in case of sunny weather, water and food (there’s no place to buy any during the trail and Skogar campsite is not well equipped).
Our experience
Since the day I’ve first seen the Fimmvorduhals hike and read about it, I knew I have to try it 🙂 Planning is crucial for the Fimmvorduhals hike (see above). After many changes, we finally decided to go for the hike on Day 3 of our highlands trip.
A month before the hike I found my hiking buddy via Facebook group Travel Iceland. My wife didn’t feel like going for such a long hike and I didn’t want to push her. My buddy – Vicente – seemed to know what he was doing, although you never know before you really get to know each other 🙂 I took care of the entire organization of the trip – i.e. mainly choosing the specific day, buying bus tickets, and making a bus seat reservation.
The final part of the Fimmvorduhals hike near Thorsmork
Our plan
We had a 3-day window when we could both do the hike (as an intersection of my and Vicente’s schedule). I waited 5 days before the hike and when the weather looked reasonable I booked the bus and reserved the seats for Friday. I received the response from the bus company anytime from 1 hour after my email to almost 24 hours – but they always responded and always positively. Vicente travelled from Reykjavik, I travelled from Hvolsvollur.
The plan for our trip was as follows:
Vicente getting on the bus at 7:00 in Reykjavik towards Skogar
Me coming by car to Hvolsvollur and getting on the same bus to Skogar at 9:00
Starting the hike at 10:00 in Skogar
Finish the hike before 20:00 in Basar
Take the bus back from Basar hut at 20:00 – me to Hvolsvollur, my friend to Reykjavik
The waterfall way in the first third of the Fimmvörðuháls hike
3 days before the hike the weather forecast changed and it looked much better for Saturday. So, I wrote a kind email to the bus company asking for rescheduling and they quickly replied positively. 2 days before the hike the forecast started to show some strong winds exactly in the worst part of the hike – between the two glaciers. I decided to reschedule again – back to Friday – although I must have looked dumb already at that point in the eyes of the bus company.
On a Thursday evening, I looked at the forecast once again and it showed slight rain for Friday and the wind forecast for Saturday disappeared. I felt like an idiot but I decided to write the bus company once again and reschedule the trip for the fourth time. They replied late in the evening that yes, it’s rescheduled. At that moment I just prayed I had made a good decision. And it turned out I did. The weather on our day was almost perfect.
The snowy part of the hike
The Fimmvorduhals trail step by step
0. Map of the Fimmvorduhals trail
Click to enlarge:
Fimmvörðuháls hike map (from Skógar to Thórsmörk)
1. Skógar and Skogafoss
The Fimmvorduhals trail starts with the magnificent, giant green scenery of Skogar. This is usually the place where most of the tourists both start and finish, as was the case during our first visit to Skogafoss. While Skogafoss is an admiringly beautiful place definitely worth visiting, it’s a mistake not to continue further up the Skogafoss waterfall trail. It doesn’t take too long to finish it, nor is the trail too hard. So we do recommend you reserve some extra time to see it!
Bottom part of Skógafoss waterfall (and a wedding in the background ☺)
2. The waterfall way
It is the waterfall way that begins with the famous Skogafoss and continues with several other, less known but not any less beautiful waterfalls. The waterfall way is one of the most beautiful short hikes in Iceland I’ve seen. I can highly recommend doing this hike to everyone – even if you don’t want to continue. Just take the waterfall way from Skogar and come back.
The waterfall way looking back to Skogar
The entire waterfall way is around 8 kilometers long and took us around 2 hours to complete from Skogafoss to the last waterfall on the route. That being said, we hiked very quickly with only short pauses for taking pictures. At a relaxed pace, it may take some 2.5-3 hours one way. But you don’t need to take it all the way to the end. The most beautiful part was its first half, i.e. some first 4 kilometers. Doing that as a roundtrip makes for some 3-hour long hike at a relaxed pace that everyone can make.
The Fimmvörðuháls hike trail during the waterfall way part
Water and moss are literally everywhere during this part of the Fimmvorduhals hike. We felt as if we were a part of some fairy tale, with hobbits possibly chasing us somewhere. This hike is also doable even if it rains lightly and the visibility isn’t perfect, so it’s a great candidate also for moody days. And what’s one of the best features about Icelandic landscapes – they look very different in the cloudy and in the sunny weather. So, you may even visit them twice and still have a different experience!
One of the largest waterfalls at the waterfall way of the Fimmvorduhals hike
3. The ascent towards Baldvinsskáli hut
The waterfall way ends with a little bridge and roughly marks the first third of the Fimmvorduhals hike. The next part is the most boring one – the first part of the ascent towards Baldvinsskali hut. For around 40-50 minutes there’s pretty much nothing to see and you just have to walk up the gravel road where emergency vehicles can drive to Baldvinsskali hut.
The most boring part of the Fimmvorduhals hike – right after the end of the waterfall way
Then you will reach the area where nice views start to slowly appear – in good weather with good visibility of course. The combination of snow, gravel, and hills in the distance is very nice, though definitely not the best part of the hike. We soon spotted the Baldvinsskali hut in front of us, and, as expected, it was covered in a fog 🙂
Fimmvorduhals trail just before the Baldvinsskali hut
This part of the hike took us around 1.5 hours to complete, still at a pretty quick pace, including a 10-minute lunch break. After 3.5 hours of quick pace, we were supposed to be already almost halfway through the entire hike. This meant, we decided to slow our pace and enjoy the scenery more and take more pictures.
A very bad selfie (and our only picture) of us in front of the Baldvinsskáli hut in a total fog
4. Between the two glaciers
The middle part of the hike – between the Baldivnsskali hut and the Kattarhryggur pass is the most difficult one, yet I still think – not too difficult. This is also where the weather usually gets worse (more foggy, rainy, or windy). We were pretty lucky, though, to have nearly perfect weather with fog only on at a short part near the hut. This middle part is also the one where hiking poles do come in handy.
Right after the Baldvinsskali hut, first glacial snowfields of the Fimmvorduhals trail appear
The first snowfield appears right after the Baldvinsskali hut (coming from the Skogar direction) and in our case was pretty easy to walk on. Just remember we had no rain, no wind, and an occasional fog and sun. There are several other snowfields on a way towards the craters of Magni and Modi. None of the snowfields seemed difficult to us and crampons were useless in our opinion. If you walk carefully and follow the steps in the snow (in case they are there), you shouldn’t have a problem crossing the fields. This part of the hike really felt like “ICEland” thanks to all this snow even in the middle of the summer.
5. The most difficult part of the Fimmvorduhals hike
After a few snowfields, the most difficult part of the hike (at least for me) followed. We descended into the small valley full of ash, clay, and melting ice and snow. Firstly, we had to descend down through the slippery path consisting of ice and ash. It was unclear where exactly the path led and we had to find our own. OK, done. But next, we had to climb the very unpleasant hill. We had already seen several hikers in front of us struggling at this part and in a while, I completely understood why.
For me the most difficult part of the Fimmvörðuháls trail in front of us
The hill in front of us was pretty steep and had a pretty bad grip. It reminded me of the slippery part of the hike to Bláhnjukúr in Landmannalaugar, but this one was much worse. This hill again consisted of black ash, melting ice, gravel, and clay. None of them was any firm and I felt like slipping and falling with each step. And this didn’t feel very pleasant given that you were on a steep slope. This part was the only one where I was a bit scared and which seemed dangerous to me. But that may be only me – I just hate places where I can’t stand firmly on the ground.
The steep and slippery trail made of ash and dry clay. Hiking poles saved my life.
Hiking poles literally saved my life at this part and thanks to them I was able to finish it without stumbling. I cannot imagine hiking this part in rain or strong wind, that must be terrifying.
6. Almost two thirds into the hike
Afterwards, several lunar landscapes followed. Red ash, black ash, moon-like hills, really a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The terrain wasn’t difficult anymore at this part. The only spot where we were slightly confused was a crossroad where you had to decide to go on a big snowfield or climb through big black lava stones. We decided to go for the stones and then followed to the nearest yellow stick-mark.
For me one of the 3 most beautiful parts of the Fimmvörðuháls hike
What follows is a beautiful picturesque lunar area around the craters of Magni and Modi. The views are getting better at this part and in nice weather, you are able to already see a bit into Thorsmork valley as well as into the other beautiful valleys in the distance.
7. Magni and Modi craters
If you have time, definitely go for the little detour up to the Móði crater. It takes less than 10 minutes to reach the top (turn left in the direction of the red peak, coming from the Baldvinsskali hut).
Unforgettable views from the peak of the Móði crater
If the visibility is good, views from the top of the Móði crater are entirely stunning. 5 hours have passed and we were already two-thirds into the entire hike, so we took our time and stayed for a while on top of the Móði, enjoyed the views, and slowly descended back.
One of the highest points of the Fimmvorduhals hike with stunning views
Shortly after reaching Magni and Modi craters, the magnificent Thorsmork valley starts to reveal itself in front of you. This was one of my favorite views of the entire hike. A huge green valley, mountains, rivers, and different valleys are everywhere in the distance. From this point onwards, only the descent follows – no more climbs 🙂
8. The only chains of the hike
The only chains at Fimmvörðuháls trail
As you approach Thorsmork, views are getting better and better. Eventually, we reached the only technical passage of this part of the hike – chains. The descent continues next to the steep ravine and to make it more safe chains were tied into the nearby stones. Take care though, some of them are moving. This passage is a little bit scary when looking at it but otherwise isn’t dangerous because you just walk on the firm flat ground, holding onto chains (and the ravine is below you).
This is the wrong way. The right path leads to the left via chains.
My friend mistakenly took the wrong way and had to literally jump a bit from the cliff to be able to proceed. Do not take this way, it’s dangerous. After seeing him struggling, I took the right path described above. Chains are the right part. Take chains.
The part many find the most dangerous. Not me. Chains to the right, valley to the left.
These chains at Fimmvorduhals are the part many people described as the scariest one. I definitely didn’t think so. The worst part for me was the one in the middle of the hike with slippery ash and clay without any chains.
9. Thorsmork valley descent
Views of Thórsmörk from the final part of the Fimmvörðuháls trail
The final slightly technical part of the entire hike is the famous Kattarhryggur, or “cat’s spine” pass. It’s a narrow pass where there’s a steep ravine both on your left and on your right. There are no chains, but the pass is pretty flat with firm ground. Unless the weather is very windy or otherwise unpleasant, hiking this part shouldn’t be any problem.
A famous Kattarhryggur (cat’s spine) pass was not that bad in a beautiful weather
The gradual descent into the Thorsmork valley continues afterward. Huge green areas with views towards Thorsmork, Krossa river, and its arms. We made roughly a 1-hour long break before Kattarhryggur to admire the surroundings and arrived down at the Basar hut at 7 PM. Without the break, the hike would take us 8 hours at a medium-to-quick pace, including photo pauses and short food pauses. Our bus was supposed to leave from the Basar hut so we stayed at Basar and waited for it.
Coming back
If you have time, energy, or you simply don’t go for the bus from Basar, you may continue on foot to other campsites which are further away. The closest one is the Langidalur campsite (another bus stop), which is roughly 30 minutes by walk from Basar. And then there’s also the Husadalur campsite with well-known Volcano huts, which is another 20-30 minutes by walk from the Langidalur campsite. We took the bus from Basar to Hvolsvollur (and my friend to Reykjavik) at 8 PM and ended our beautiful day.
This article just summarizes in detail our experience during the Fimmvorduhals hike. If you are interested in a detailed Fimmvorduhals hike guide – including tips on weather, season, clothes, transportation, length, and difficulty – read our full Fimmvörðuháls hike guide.
Fimmvörðuháls hike map (from Skógar to Thórsmörk)
Since the day I’ve first seen the Fimmvorduhals hike and read about it, I knew I have to try it 🙂 Planning is crucial for the Fimmvorduhals hike (see below). After many changes, we finally decided to go for the hike on Day 3 of our highlands trip.
A month before the hike I found my hiking buddy via Facebook group Travel Iceland. My wife didn’t feel like going for such a long hike and I didn’t want to push her. My buddy – Vicente – seemed to know what he was doing, although you never know before you really get to know each other 🙂 I took care of the entire organization of the trip – i.e. mainly choosing the specific day, buying bus tickets, and making a bus seat reservation.
The final part of the Fimmvorduhals hike near Thorsmork
We had a 3-day window when we could both do the hike (as an intersection of my and Vicente’s schedule). I waited 5 days before the hike and when the weather looked reasonable I booked the bus and reserved the seats for Friday. I received the response from the bus company anytime from 1 hour after my email to almost 24 hours – but they always responded and always positively. Vicente travelled from Reykjavik, I travelled from Hvolsvollur.
The plan for our trip was as follows:
Vicente getting on the bus at 7:00 in Reykjavik towards Skogar
Me coming by car to Hvolsvollur and getting on the same bus to Skogar at 9:00
Starting the hike at 10:00 in Skogar
Finish the hike before 20:00 in Basar
Take the bus back from Basar hut at 20:00 – me to Hvolsvollur, my friend to Reykjavik
The waterfall way in the first third of the Fimmvörðuháls hike
3 days before the hike the weather forecast changed and it looked much better for Saturday. So, I wrote a kind email to the bus company asking for rescheduling and they quickly replied positively. 2 days before the hike the forecast started to show some strong winds exactly in the worst part of the hike – between the two glaciers. I decided to reschedule again – back to Friday – although I must have looked dumb already at that point in the eyes of the bus company.
On a Thursday evening, I looked at the forecast once again and it showed slight rain for Friday and the wind forecast for Saturday disappeared. I felt like an idiot but I decided to write the bus company once again and reschedule the trip for the fourth time. They replied late in the evening that yes, it’s rescheduled. At that moment I just prayed I had made a good decision. And it turned out I did. The weather on our day was almost perfect.
The snowy part of the hike
The Fimmvorduhals trail step by step
1. Skógar and Skogafoss
The Fimmvorduhals trail starts with the magnificent, giant green scenery of Skogar. This is usually the place where most of the tourists both start and finish, as was the case during our first visit to Skogafoss. While Skogafoss is an admiringly beautiful place definitely worth visiting, it’s a mistake not to continue further up the Skogafoss waterfall trail. It doesn’t take too long to finish it, nor is the trail too hard. So we do recommend you reserve some extra time to see it!
Bottom part of Skógafoss waterfall (and a wedding in the background ☺)
2. The waterfall way
It is the waterfall way that begins with the famous Skogafoss and continues with several other, less known but not any less beautiful waterfalls. The waterfall way is one of the most beautiful short hikes in Iceland I’ve seen. I can highly recommend doing this hike to everyone – even if you don’t want to continue. Just take the waterfall way from Skogar and come back.
The waterfall way looking back to Skogar
The entire waterfall way is around 8 kilometers long and took us around 2 hours to complete from Skogafoss to the last waterfall on the route. That being said, we hiked very quickly with only short pauses for taking pictures. At a relaxed pace, it may take some 2.5-3 hours one way. But you don’t need to take it all the way to the end. The most beautiful part was its first half, i.e. some first 4 kilometers. Doing that as a roundtrip makes for some 3-hour long hike at a relaxed pace that everyone can make.
The Fimmvörðuháls hike trail during the waterfall way part
Water and moss are literally everywhere during this part of the Fimmvorduhals hike. We felt as if we were a part of some fairy tale, with hobbits possibly chasing us somewhere. This hike is also doable even if it rains lightly and the visibility isn’t perfect, so it’s a great candidate also for moody days. And what’s one of the best features about Icelandic landscapes – they look very different in the cloudy and in the sunny weather. So, you may even visit them twice and still have a different experience!
One of the largest waterfalls at the waterfall way of the Fimmvorduhals hike
3. The ascent towards Baldvinsskáli hut
The waterfall way ends with a little bridge and roughly marks the first third of the Fimmvorduhals hike. The next part is the most boring one – the first part of the ascent towards Baldvinsskali hut. For around 40-50 minutes there’s pretty much nothing to see and you just have to walk up the gravel road where emergency vehicles can drive to Baldvinsskali hut.
The most boring part of the Fimmvorduhals hike – right after the end of the waterfall way
Then you will reach the area where nice views start to slowly appear – in good weather with good visibility of course. The combination of snow, gravel, and hills in the distance is very nice, though definitely not the best part of the hike. We soon spotted the Baldvinsskali hut in front of us, and, as expected, it was covered in a fog 🙂
Fimmvorduhals trail just before the Baldvinsskali hut
This part of the hike took us around 1.5 hours to complete, still at a pretty quick pace, including a 10-minute lunch break. After 3.5 hours of quick pace, we were supposed to be already almost halfway through the entire hike. This meant, we decided to slow our pace and enjoy the scenery more and take more pictures.
A very bad selfie (and our only picture) of us in front of the Baldvinsskáli hut in a total fog
4. Between the two glaciers
The middle part of the hike – between the Baldivnsskali hut and the Kattarhryggur pass is the most difficult one, yet I still think – not too difficult. This is also where the weather usually gets worse (more foggy, rainy, or windy). We were pretty lucky, though, to have nearly perfect weather with fog only on at a short part near the hut. This middle part is also the one where hiking poles do come in handy.
Right after the Baldvinsskali hut, first glacial snowfields of the Fimmvorduhals trail appear
The first snowfield appears right after the Baldvinsskali hut (coming from the Skogar direction) and in our case was pretty easy to walk on. Just remember we had no rain, no wind, and an occasional fog and sun. There are several other snowfields on a way towards the craters of Magni and Modi. None of the snowfields seemed difficult to us and crampons were useless in our opinion. If you walk carefully and follow the steps in the snow (in case they are there), you shouldn’t have a problem crossing the fields. This part of the hike really felt like “ICEland” thanks to all this snow even in the middle of the summer.
5. The most difficult part of the Fimmvorduhals hike
After a few snowfields, the most difficult part of the hike (at least for me) followed. We descended into the small valley full of ash, clay, and melting ice and snow. Firstly, we had to descend down through the slippery path consisting of ice and ash. It was unclear where exactly the path led and we had to find our own. OK, done. But next, we had to climb the very unpleasant hill. We had already seen several hikers in front of us struggling at this part and in a while, I completely understood why.
For me the most difficult part of the Fimmvörðuháls trail in front of us
The hill in front of us was pretty steep and had a pretty bad grip. It reminded me of the slippery part of the hike to Bláhnjukúr in Landmannalaugar, but this one was much worse. This hill again consisted of black ash, melting ice, gravel, and clay. None of them was any firm and I felt like slipping and falling with each step. And this didn’t feel very pleasant given that you were on a steep slope. This part was the only one where I was a bit scared and which seemed dangerous to me. But that may be only me – I just hate places where I can’t stand firmly on the ground.
The steep and slippery trail made of ash and dry clay. Hiking poles saved my life.
Hiking poles literally saved my life at this part and thanks to them I was able to finish it without stumbling. I cannot imagine hiking this part in rain or strong wind, that must be terrifying.
6. Almost two thirds into the hike
Afterwards, several lunar landscapes followed. Red ash, black ash, moon-like hills, really a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The terrain wasn’t difficult anymore at this part. The only spot where we were slightly confused was a crossroad where you had to decide to go on a big snowfield or climb through big black lava stones. We decided to go for the stones and then followed to the nearest yellow stick-mark.
For me one of the 3 most beautiful parts of the Fimmvörðuháls hike
What follows is a beautiful picturesque lunar area around the craters of Magni and Modi. The views are getting better at this part and in nice weather, you are able to already see a bit into Thorsmork valley as well as into the other beautiful valleys in the distance.
7. Magni and Modi craters
If you have time, definitely go for the little detour up to the Móði crater. It takes less than 10 minutes to reach the top (turn left in the direction of the red peak, coming from the Baldvinsskali hut).
Unforgettable views from the peak of the Móði crater
If the visibility is good, views from the top of the Móði crater are entirely stunning. 5 hours have passed and we were already two-thirds into the entire hike, so we took our time and stayed for a while on top of the Móði, enjoyed the views, and slowly descended back.
One of the highest points of the Fimmvorduhals hike with stunning views
Shortly after reaching Magni and Modi craters, the magnificent Thorsmork valley starts to reveal itself in front of you. This was one of my favorite views of the entire hike. A huge green valley, mountains, rivers, and different valleys are everywhere in the distance. From this point onwards, only the descent follows – no more climbs 🙂
8. The only chains of the hike
The only chains at Fimmvörðuháls trail
As you approach Thorsmork, views are getting better and better. Eventually, we reached the only technical passage of this part of the hike – chains. The descent continues next to the steep ravine and to make it more safe chains were tied into the nearby stones. Take care though, some of them are moving. This passage is a little bit scary when looking at it but otherwise isn’t dangerous because you just walk on the firm flat ground, holding onto chains (and the ravine is below you).
This is the wrong way. The right path leads to the left via chains.
My friend mistakenly took the wrong way and had to literally jump a bit from the cliff to be able to proceed. Do not take this way, it’s dangerous. After seeing him struggling, I took the right path described above. Chains are the right part. Take chains.
The part many find the most dangerous. Not me. Chains to the right, valley to the left.
These chains at Fimmvorduhals are the part many people described as the scariest one. I definitely didn’t think so. The worst part for me was the one in the middle of the hike with slippery ash and clay without any chains.
9. Thorsmork valley descent
Views of Thórsmörk from the final part of the Fimmvörðuháls trail
The final slightly technical part of the entire hike is the famous Kattarhryggur, or “cat’s spine” pass. It’s a narrow pass where there’s a steep ravine both on your left and on your right. There are no chains, but the pass is pretty flat with firm ground. Unless the weather is very windy or otherwise unpleasant, hiking this part shouldn’t be any problem.
A famous Kattarhryggur (cat’s spine) pass was not that bad in a beautiful weather
The gradual descent into the Thorsmork valley continues afterward. Huge green areas with views towards Thorsmork, Krossa river, and its arms. We made roughly a 1-hour long break before Kattarhryggur to admire the surroundings and arrived down at the Basar hut at 7 PM. Without the break, the hike would take us 8 hours at a medium-to-quick pace, including photo pauses and short food pauses. Our bus was supposed to leave from the Basar hut so we stayed at Basar and waited for it.
Coming back
Bus to/from Thorsmork standing at Básar hut
If you have time, energy, or you simply don’t go for the bus from Basar, you may continue on foot to other campsites which are further away. The closest one is the Langidalur campsite (another bus stop), which is roughly 30 minutes by walk from Basar. And then there’s also the Husadalur campsite with well-known Volcano huts, which is another 20-30 minutes by walk from the Langidalur campsite. We took the bus from Basar to Hvolsvollur (and my friend to Reykjavik) at 8 PM and ended our beautiful day.
If you ask a typical tourist if they have visited Fjallabak reserve in the Icelandic Highlands, they would probably give you a weird look asking something like “What is Fjallabak reserve?”. And that’s exactly one of the reasons why we definitely wanted to visit Fjallabak roads 🙂 Not many people tend to go there.
The reason is, it’s not that easy to find information about beautiful places over the Fjallabak, and last but not least it’s not so easy to get there. You definitely need a good car for that. And still, almost every tourist surely has visited Fjallabak once, because that’s where also famous Landmannalaugar is located.
The weather slowly started to get cloudier and rainier in the south so we had to pick our next destinations really carefully. Our accommodation was near Hella, so there were still plenty of options to go at. One of the areas where the weather was supposed to be nice (i.e. not rainy and hopefully not foggy) was the Fjallabak nature highlands reserve. Fjallabak, i.e. the area around roads F210 and F261 was on the top of our list anyway, so it was an easy choice for Day 2 of our Highlands trip.
Our plan for the day was to drive the road F210 starting from the west (Hella side), stop at Alftavatn campsite/lake, and admire the surroundings of the magnificent F210. Next, if the weather and road conditions allowed, we planned to drive to legendary Maelifell and if we had enough time and courage, also to Rauðibotn.
Raudibotn is a remote place away from all of the tourists, hard to access, yet stunningly beautiful. At least that’s what I managed to find out from scarce sources beforehand. To get there, however, you need to cross the Holmsá river, which can get really dangerous at times, so we left it as an optional activity if the crossing looked safe only.
Then we planned to come back via F210 around Maelifell to go see Markarfljotsgljufur canyon, which was said to be one of the most beautiful, yet still pretty hidden. Then, if we still had some time a friend of mine suggested an adventurous 4×4 track leading north in between F261 and F210 to Hungurfit hut. He said our (slightly) modified Land Cruiser should be just enough to drive the route.
Our friend also mentioned to us a really remote hot spring – Strutslaug – but we saved that one for another day. Yes, a very packed day, but still pretty flexible, because we could basically cancel any activity if it seemed undoable. And that’s what everyone should plan for I think – anything should be cancellable, just in case.
How to get to Fjallabak – F210 and F261
No, there’s no bus here, such as the one in Thorsmork. The only way to get to F210 is by taking a guided tour (an expensive option) or driving there by yourself (a time-consuming option demanding planning, experience, and driving skills). We naturally opted for the second option.
F210 (Fjallabaksleid sydri) between Keldur and Alftavatn
Most of the F210 is without bigger river crossings, so in case of good weather, even if you don’t feel like doing bigger river crossings, you may try to drive it in a proper 4×4 (ideally Land Cruiser or bigger, see our guide on how to choose a proper car for Iceland) – up to Alftavatn mountain hut.
Up to Alftavatn hut, the road is just bumpy, with potholes and some steep sections, but really picturesque and one of my favorite Icelandic roads. You will get amazing views in each direction – seeing Landmannalaugar from the distance and a big part of Fjallabak Park.
1. F210 west to Alftavatn
F210 west near Keldur
Even until Alftavatn, you will still have to cross several smaller streams, and even drive in the riverbed for around 100 meters! This is really one of the “once in a lifetime” experiences, for anyone not used to it (yes, maybe not for Icelanders ;).
As I mentioned, the road leads through multiple mountainous areas, so if you are unsure about driving in such an environment, please don’t go. Once you pass Alftavatn, the first real obstacle gets into your path – crossing the Kaldaklofskvisl river.
Kaldaklofskvisl crossing on F210 can get tricky at times because there are some large boulders in the river that you are unable to see beforehand. Secondly, the water level in the river may get too high to allow for safe crossing in vehicles not big enough.
It’s always necessary to strictly adhere to all the river crossing rules, watch someone cross before you, wade the river yourself if feeling unsure, and if still feeling unsure better turn back.
Kaldaklofskvísl river crossing
2. Alftavatn
We had nice partially cloudy/partially sunny weather, luckily with no fog and no rain. We already knew from our friends and from the day before, that the water level in rivers is favorably low and rivers are shallower than usual. These are practically one of the best conditions possible.
Hence, we drove F210 all the way to Alftavatn lake. The road was admiringly beautiful. The part I liked the most was the highest spot just before Alftavatn, where you could see all the surrounding land, including Landmannalaugar in the distance, almost from the “bird’s eye” point of view.
Álftavatn lake
We took a short break at Alftavatn lake, which is a very nice, calm, and quiet spot to stop at and have a picnic or short stay during nice weather. We were lucky enough that exactly after our arrival at Alftavatn the sun started to fight its way between the clouds and we could even walk in the T-shirt outside.
3. F210 east towards Maelifell
F210 after Alftavatn then continues in two directions – south towards F261 and east towards Maelifell and Holmsa river. Since our journey went smoothly up to this point, we definitely wanted to take a detour toward Maelifell and so we did. We turned left on the eastern part of F210. Here’s where the truly lunar landscapes have begun to emerge.
F210 Fjallabaksleid Sydri east to Maelifell
F210 towards Maelifell is definitely one of the most unique Icelandic roads. Firstly, the weather almost always changes when driving on this road. F210 towards Maelifellsandur literally feels like a gateway towards another world, thanks to this. Secondly, the road itself is very specific – it starts with huge boulders and continues as a black sand road.
And it’s almost always covered with some kind of mist – either light or heavy. Huge boulders are the most difficult part of F210 towards Maelifell. The road doesn’t have a clearly visible track, and if you don’t take enough care, you may damage the underside of your car.
After basically driving on huge stone plates rather than an ordinary road, the route turns into tracks in the black sand. Oftentimes expect it to be wet and muddy because this is the area where it may rain occasionally. This part of the road doesn’t have any huge obstacles, or rivers, so it looks like a giant moon highway.
There are no more river crossings going from Kaldaklofskvisl to Maelifell. If you are the only car on the road (which is frequently the case, as with us) then your only guides are the tracks in the sand and yellow sticks marking the side of the road.
4. Maelifell
After a drive in the middle of “black sand nowhere”, you will be able to spot majestic Maelifellsandur in the distance. If you are lucky enough, and Mr. Maelifell is not covered in fog – which he likes to do – your view will be truly amazing. As I already mentioned, the weather usually changes to worse after turning towards Maelifell. This was exactly our case (multiple times). This time it, however, only changed to cloudy with occasional little rain – which is still considered good weather.
Maelifell in Fjallabak nature reserve
Finally, after an adventurous drive – there it stood – Maelifell volcano. It’s a view as if you were on a deserted planet. A huge green volcano in front of you, surrounded by black sand fields, with occasional little lakes created by past rain and absolute silence in the air.
It’s even possible to climb the Maelifell, but we don’t recommend doing that unless you are really experienced in performing steep, unmarked hikes unless there’s ideal weather and ideally only with a guide. We didn’t go for the hike as it may be really dangerous (and the view from above wouldn’t be great in partially foggy weather).
5. F210 east towards Raudibotn
We still had enough time at that point of the day, because everything went pretty smoothly. Thus, we decided to take a look at the Holmsa river crossing with an aim of seeing Raudibotn – the beautiful hidden (from a typical tourist) area with a crater, river, and amazing landscapes all around.
After reaching Maelifell, we continued east and we soon arrived at the Holmsá river crossing. According to a friend of mine, the crossing was supposed to be doable, without problems, at this time of the year (especially due to low water levels). Beware, this is the river crossing which may get pretty nasty. Always check both beforehand and on-site.
Holmsá river crossing at F210
The crossing looked exactly like my friend Haraldur described it – this time harmless. I examined the river anyway and it looked calm and shallow. Because of this, we decided to go for a ford even without wading the river on foot. And the crossing went smoothly. There’s a small hill with the road, usually easy to spot on your left after the Holmsa crossing.
The road ends soon at the improvised clay car park for a few cars. There was only one car other than us already parking at the spot. We just saw a crew of this car in the distance when arriving at the place and they were apparently heading back, so we decided to wait on them and ask about the route.
6. Rauðibotn highlands
In spite of having read already about the place, it wasn’t very clear from that article where to proceed. It was also unclear if it was possible to make a round trip (via different trails) or just to use the same way there and back. Thirdly, it wasn’t clear how much time should we devote to the entire trip. Once the group, which turned out to be the French family, came back, I asked them if it is worth making the hike, to which they immediately replied “Yes, it’s stunning”.
The second thing I asked was how long it takes to do the hike. They replied “3 hours”, although I’m not completely sure they understood me because, in reality, the little hike took us much less – around 1,5 hours. My last question was if they had done the roundtrip via 2 different routes. The answer I got was “No, I don’t think so unless you want to climb up to the volcano”. OK, thanks, some useful info 🙂
Rauðibotn parking
Raudibotn trail
The trail towards Rauðibotn starts as a steep quad-bike track (I wonder who had driven up this steep hill, I wouldn’t…). It then turns right down the hill towards the picturesque green valley surrounded by a river, a volcano hill, and a lot of moss. Speaking of moss – please really do your best to NOT step on it – it takes ages for it to grow again and sometimes it will even not grow anymore. As we found it a bit difficult to orientate in the area, we put together a simple map of Raudibotn for you:
Map of Rauðibotn
The trail is not marked. The only way how to follow the trail is to look for the tracks, which are, however, most of the time easy to find. An entire area has an amazing lunar charm, where you once again really feel like on another planet. This time one which is greener and filled with a lot of water.
After roughly 30 minutes of following the trail, we arrived at the beautiful crater where the mist literally traveled up and down in the air. In the background, there was an amazingly red crater and the entire place was really pretty and definitely worth visiting. Even in cloudy and partially foggy weather which we experienced.
Raudibotn waterfalls
At that point, we tried to discover whether it was possible to come back via a different route or not. The article I had read mentioned that in order to do that you need to ford the river – but the river didn’t look fordable at all – the current looked too strong. Even when looking at the map, there didn’t seem to be an option to ford the river. Thus, we concluded – no ford – only the same way back.
The road, however, continues further next to the river all the way toward Strutslaug’s hot spring area. So, if you are into remote hiking and if you have enough time (and can somehow plan it all) feel free to proceed even further.
Rauðibotn volcano crater
After shortly examining the road further in the direction of Strutslaug (i.e. the one leading next to the big lake), we turned back and arrived at our car park via the same trail. And yet, the day still had not ended for us. One of the last stops I planned for the day was located on the way back, near the southern part of F210.
Hence, next, we drove back through Holmsa crossing, next to Maelifellsandur, and back to the F210 crossroads. At the crossroads, we turned left and headed towards our next stop – Markarfljotsgljufur canyon.
7. F210 south to Markarfljotsgljufur canyon
There are two major river crossings on the F210-F261 roundtrip. The first one is the Kaldaklofskvisl River, after Alftavatn and the second one is the Blafjallakvisl River further down F210 to the south (after not turning towards Maelifell at the crossroads). Our friend Haraldur told us that if we succeed in crossing Kaldaklofskvisl, then Blafjallakvisl will be easy because it’s a smaller crossing.
Bláfjallakvísl river crossing at f261
You can watch how we crossed the Blafjallakvisl river at F261 here. And we crossed it the wrong way. You may see in the video how our car struggled in the middle of the crossing, splashing a huge amount of water. This is exactly what you shouldn’t do. Luckily, our Land Cruiser has survived without any damage thanks to a snorkel and high ground clearance.
What happened here was that we, firstly, went too fast (overconfidence maybe?) and, secondly, probably took the wrong path. The river bed was very uneven and we fell into the deeper part with our car. All of this could have been avoided, had we waded the river by foot beforehand.
After crossing Blafjallakvisl, we headed towards the Emstrur hut to see the Markarfljotsgljufur canyon from the eastern side.
How to get to Markarfljotsgljufur Canyon
There are two ways to get to the Markarfljotsgljufur – from the west and from the east. A little warning in the beginning – neither of the roads leading there is easy. On Day 2 of our trip, we decided to take the eastern route, from the Emstrur side. On Day 5, on the other hand, we decided to see Markarfljotsgljufur canyon from the west.
This is the map of Markarfljotsgljufur canyon access roads and the way we took:
Markarfljótsgljúfur canyon map and roads
Beware, the Emstrur tracks we drove are just dirt tracks. Not even F-roads. This means they are even harder to drive than F-roads. Always check with your rental company if it allows for such roads, choose your car wisely, and study the roads in advance. Mostly only super jeeps are allowed to drive the dirt tracks.
When taking the eastern route, you have to make a detour from F210 towards Emstrur hut. There are actually two different paths – the northern one and the southern one. We took the northern one on our way there and the southern one on our way back. Both were pretty scary even in our (slightly) modified Land Cruiser.
The northern route leads primarily to the Emstrur hut. It’s a steep gravel road where you have to drive very slowly, in low gear, with 4×4 turned on, and beware of any mistakes like hitting the big stones.
Emstrur track (northern part) to Markarfljotsgljufur
When looking at the map, the Markarfljotsgljufur canyon was supposed to be located right to us, but we weren’t able to see any detour leading there. So we ended up parking our car at the Emstrur campsite. We were the only car with tires smaller than 40” there, and the locals gave us some curious looks (apparently not many travelers come here by car, and most of the time locals only).
We asked at the hut where to proceed to see the canyon. They advised us we should come back a little by car, leave the car there and then follow the hiking trail on foot. We did exactly as we were advised.
There’s a little wooden sign saying “canyon”, not very well visible, which we apparently missed. Next to the sign, there’s a place to park a few cars, so we left ours there (as the only car). We continued by walking. It takes around 10 minutes to reach the edge of the canyon. And hell, the walk is completely worth it 🙂
Markarfljotsgljufur Canyon from the east
I’m not sure if this is the biggest canyon in Iceland but it definitely looked like it. Seeing Markarfljotsgljufur was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, which cannot even compare to seeing the over-touristy Fjadrargljufur canyon or other similar places. At least for us.
The east viewpoint of Markarfljótsgljúfur Canyon
Surprisingly we were not alone here, with maybe 2 or 3 other couples admiring the place. The reason is simple – Emstrur hut serves as a shelter along the famous Laugavegur trail. At the time we reached the canyon, it was already time when most of the hikers had already arrived at the hut and were spending their late afternoons doing this little hike towards Markarfljotsgljufur.
The views from the edge of the canyon are more than just stunning. It’s also possible to hike along the edge of the canyon. Take great care though, this place doesn’t have any ropes or barriers to keep you safe from falling off the giant cliffs. The biggest plus of Markarfljotsgljufur is definitely its remoteness, which means you definitely won’t meet many fellow tourists here.
How to get from Markarfljotsgljufur
As I already mentioned above, to get to or from Markarfljotsgljufur from the eastern side, you may use two roads – both detours from F210. One northern and one southern. We used the northern detour to get there and the southern detour to get back. However, if you don’t have a huge car and you don’t like damaged roads, I don’t recommend you take the southern one.
The southern detour is an old broken track leading towards Hattgilsskáli hut. I don’t remember any major river crossing, but I definitely do remember a track in some bad condition. This southern detour from Emstrur-Botnár is a short, yet pretty intense, steep, and difficult-to-drive track. Broken stones and boulders are all around the track and huge holes meet you at every corner. At one point my wife was so scared she simply got off the car and continued walking (and shooting my drive ^^).
Once you reach the highest point of the track, the steep descent follows, once again with some huge holes which cannot be avoided, because the track is narrow and there’s a hill on your left side and a steep fall on the right side. Yes, this track from Emstrur is definitely doable in a proper car and with proper skills, but it’s not a very pleasant experience, I wouldn’t take it again. At one point our 33” Land Cruiser had two wheels in the air and I felt like this is the edge of what this car can make and I shouldn’t push further.
Anyway, with some slow driving and checking the track frequently, we eventually made it back to F210 and still had some spare hours, even though the dark was getting close. I persuaded my wife to try at least for a while the track our friend Haraldur recommended to us, the track towards Hungurfit hut.
9. Highlands around Hungurfit track
Some tour guides say they will take you to impassable places and this is exactly one of these places 🙂 Please don’t even try without enough experience in 4×4 driving, steep hills, narrow roads, and river crossings. And preferably a super jeep, or at least a Land Cruiser-like vehicle. Our friend was right, though, and the track toward Hungurfit hut is definitely one of the most exciting (and difficult) tracks I’ve driven in Iceland. Due to the shortage of time, we decided to drive only less than half of it – the circular round trip. However, in the following days, I decided to come back and do the whole track.
Beware, the Skaelingar and Blautulon tracks we drove are just dirt tracks. Not even F-roads. This means they are even harder to drive than F-roads. Always check with your rental company if it allows for such roads, choose your car wisely, and study the roads in advance. Mostly only super jeeps are allowed to drive the dirt tracks.
Hungurfit track between F210 and F261
There’s no proper road service on this road, so expect it to be difficult to drive. Big gravel and narrow steep hills are a certainty. Other than that, there’s one (not just one, to be precise) specialty at the track towards Hungurfit hut why all these guides and even locals go have some fun in here.
Once you reach the first fork/crossroads you may choose – the track towards the left leads through a gorgeous area full of little river crossings and one surprise. On the other hand, the track towards the right leads through a mountainous area with beautiful views. We’ve done the whole roundtrip.
Left and right turns from the track towards Hungurfit hut
We started with a track towards the left and descended towards an area full of small river crossings, which, for me, was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Of course, we were completely alone there. On the one hand, this was amazingly beautiful, on the other hand, it was a bit scary as well. I definitely wouldn’t want to get a flat tire in here or get stuck in the river. Forget about any cell phone signal or internet connection. Just you and the rough Icelandic highlands.
Taking the left detour at the beginning of the track towards Hungurfit hut you will soon arrive at the famous spot, which is the reason behind so many locals going in here. There are two giant stones on both sides of the road, making the road so narrow that you may pass only with a few centimeters of free space on both sides of your car.
At the same time, the track obviously isn’t flat underneath your car. There’s another huge stone on the ground, followed by a big hole and another sharp stone. So you would need to maximize your patience (and driving skills) to pass through without any damage to your car.
Hungurfit track
I took enough time to study the passage and to check whether everything is fine for me to pass and we passed well. The river crossing area then continues for a while and then you’re gonna connect to the right detour. From there, you may either come back (as we did this time) or continue around 50 kilometers all the way toward the northern part of F210 (as we did next time).
We came back via the right track, which was similarly exciting, just in a different way – some more steep and narrow passages with potholes. You can watch the entire video of our Hungurfit round-trip here.
10. F261
F261 Emstruleið
It was already evening, so we had to head back. We completed our round trip via F261 back towards Hella. F261 doesn’t contain any major river crossings, only Blafjallakvisl at the beginning (next to F210). And, as I mentioned above, Blafjallakvisl was easy this time and generally should be easier than Kaldaklofskvisl (if crossed correctly).
F261 near F210 is composed of big gravel and some steep sections so you have to drive slowly and the drive is not that comfortable. It’s definitely possible to drive F261 also in an SUV like Dacia Duster, although I cannot imagine how uncomfortable it has to be.
F261 near Fljótshlíð
You can watch the entire video of our F261 drive here. The western part of F261 basically leads to the other bank of the Krossá river and you are able to see the Thorsmork area and F249 well from it. Even this part contains a lot of big gravel and the drive has to be slow and not very comfortable. The scenery is beautiful as always, although for me F210 was even more picturesque. This may, however, be due to the effect that we had seen F210 first 🙂
About Us Dear Iceland lovers! We are Igor, Katka (+family), and love Iceland with all our hearts. We've spent 3000+ hours hiking, driving, and studying Iceland. Highlands, F-roads, epic Hikes, and wild Hot Springs are our favorites. We share everything we know about Iceland on this blog. Read our references.
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