The volcanic and geothermal playground of northern Iceland 🌋

In today's post, I will continue with the narration of our road trip around Iceland. For the three of us, this was one of the most exciting and unforgettable days of our trip since we have been overwhelmed by the fact, which we cannot possibly ignore, that we are walking on a hot, bubbling sphere in the middle of space.

The Hverir geothermal area ♨️

Our first stop was at the Hverir geothermal area. A landscape of grey and orange colours, mixed with dense white clouds of steam.

The Hverir geothermal area lies along Mt. Námafjall. This is barren terrain with high temperatures and big fumaroles. When you take a walk along the paths, the whole area is boiling, bubbling, and hissing.

The locals also call the area Hell's (Devil's) Kitchen, and it really looks like a big kitchen full of boiling and steaming hot pots. The smell from the boiling pots is not nice, but very strong and acidic.

This strong smell of sulfur in the air can overwhelm you, especially with the strong wind. The fumes can be toxic and can cause headaches and nausea, so you have to stay upwind and try to avoid them where possible. After almost a week in Iceland, we were already used to the strong smell, but our son still says today that the smell in Hverir was too strong 😊. And yes, he actually moved away from the steam area and was watching us from far away, sitting on a rock that was at a safe distance from the strongest steam and fumaroles.

As said, this area is very hot, and there is not only the hot steam, but there are also pods of hot mud. There are designated paths where it is safe to walk, and visitors need to be very careful since the temperatures are high and the consequences if you get burned can be very bad.

The whole area is mystical, on the one hand due to the colors but also due to the steam. I was really impressed by the fumaroles; they were not only producing hot steam but also hissing like a hot pot that is about to explode.

The mud pods were fascinating, they were bubbling and dropping the hot gray mud on the orange and white surfaces. I had so many photo opportunities that I could stay in this geothermal area for the whole day, but my wife reminded me that we still have many places to visit during the day.

We have planned our next stop at Viti Crater Lake, which is a part of the Krafla caldera. Krafla is just a short drive from Hverir, and it is a major volcano situated on the line between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. The Krafla caldera is 10 km in diameter.

The drive was very interesting since we were passing the Krafla geothermal power station. For a few seconds I was confused and afraid that I'd entered an area that was not for the public, but then we realized that the road just goes so close to the power station. Just later, I found out that they do have a visitors’ center. It would be an interesting visit, but honestly, we didn’t have enough time to do it.

Mt. Leirhnjúkur volcano

We parked our car at the place we thought was the starting point for the walk to Viti, but later on we realized that that was not the right place. It happened just by coincidence that we visited Mt. Leirhnjúkur volcano. The name Leirhnjúkur means Clay Hill, and the volcano got its name from the clay, which stems from the rhyolite melting from the geothermal heat.

There are wooden paths around this small volcano that rises only 50 meters above the ground, and there are also two beautiful lakes with vivid blue waters, surrounded by the bright colors of the geothermal area.

We continued our hike across the lava fields and towards the Hófur crater. My wife got a little bit scared 😊 when we walked along the crater and lava fields and there was still steam and hot air coming from the ground.

The Viti Lake

Back at the parking, we took a second look at the map and drove just a few meters further to reach the Viti Lake, also called “Big Hell." This is an explosion crater formed in 1724, and today it is filled with water, so when you reach the border of the crater, you have a view of a fantastic blue lake.

Krafla volcano erupted nine times between 1975 and 1984, and it was very active and devastating. I can’t imagine how it was for the Icelandic people living in the area.

Myvatn Nature Baths

When we were planning our trip to Iceland, we've decided that we would visit just one thermal baths, and we decided on the The Blue Lagoon, but when we were in the Myvatn area, we couldn’t resist, and we also took a bath in the Myvatn Nature Baths.

In this beautiful lagoon, the water is between 36 and 40 degrees Celsius and is packed with minerals that are good for respiratory and skin problems. It was a nice break that we enjoyed very much. There were parts of the lagoon with very hot water, and me and my son just loved to chill out in those corners, while my wife, who prefers a bit cooler water, was searching for some milder options on the opposite side of the lagoon.

We were so excited about Iceland that we didn't even have time to eat, so we had a quick sandwich and took a ride along Myvatn. There was time for a photo stop at Hverfjall crater, a black 396-meter explosion crater.

Dimmuborgir Rock Formations

Our next stop was at Dimmuborgir Rock Formations, the Dark Forrest. It is an area of lava formations that is compared to a castle, since the lava formations resemble towers, and there are many caves that can represent dungeons.

There are several folk stories from this area, most probably also because the different shapes of the rocks influenced the imagination of the locals and visitors.

There are several paths in the area and possibilities for hikes. I must say that we weren’t particularly impressed by the area, so we did a short walk around and then continued with our driver towards Skutustadagigar Pseudocraters.

Skutustadagigar Pseudocraters

Skutustadagigar is located on the south side of Lake Myvatn. It is a line of pseudocraters. I didn’t know what pseudocraters are, then I found out that “regular craters are formed when lava builds up around a fissure in the earth, while pseudocraters were formed by gas explosions when melting lava flowed over pockets of water in the wetlands.

Goðafoss waterfall

It was already late in the evening, but the sun was still high in the sky (in summertime there are white nights in Iceland), and with the last atoms of our energy, we decided for the last stop of the day, the Goðafoss waterfall. It is said to be one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Iceland. Maybe we were already tired but were not impressed by the waterfall. Well, it is beautiful and immense, but we can’t say that was the nicest waterfall that we saw in Iceland. But anyway, it was worth stopping by and visiting it.

The name of the waterfall is connected with Icelandic history. When the Icelanders decided to convert to Christianity, Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði, the country's law speaker, threw his idols of the Old Norse religion gods into the waterfall. Goð in Icelandic means God, and this gave the name to the waterfall.