Landmannalaugar

Few landscapes in Europe look as improbable as the mountains around Landmannalaugar, in the Fjallabak Nature Reserve of Iceland's southern highlands. The slopes are streaked and banded in rust red, sulphur yellow, pale green, lilac and grey, as if someone had poured paint down them, and snow patches linger in the gullies well into summer. Against these soft colours lies a field of black, glassy lava, and through the middle of the valley runs a braided river on a flat of grey gravel.

The colours come from rhyolite, a silica-rich volcanic rock that is rare in basalt-dominated Iceland. Landmannalaugar sits within the Torfajökull volcanic system, the largest area of rhyolite in the country, and heat and water rising from below have altered the rock into clays and oxides of every hue: iron gives the reds and yellows, other minerals the greens and blues. The Laugahraun lava flow at the edge of the campsite erupted around 1477; walking into it, you clamber between jagged blocks studded with shiny black obsidian. Nearby peaks have names that describe them – Brennisteinsalda, the "sulphur wave", steams from vents on its flanks, while Bláhnúkur, the "blue peak", is dark grey-blue above the valley.

The name refers to warm pools, and geothermal water still emerges at the foot of the lava, mixing with a cold stream to form a natural bathing spot at around 36–40 °C, where hikers soak after a day on the trails. Short walks of an hour or a few hours climb onto the ridges for views over the whole painted basin, and the crater lake Ljótipollur lies in the same highland area. Landmannalaugar is also the northern starting point of the Laugavegur, Iceland's best-known multi-day trek, which runs about 55 km south through rhyolite hills, ice-capped volcanoes and black sand deserts to the birch woods of Þórsmörk.

The Iceland Touring Association runs a mountain hut and campsite at the site, which remains otherwise without permanent buildings.

Getting there

Landmannalaugar is about 187 km by road from Reykjavík, around three to four hours' drive, the last part on the highland F-roads F208 or F225, which cross rivers and require a four-wheel-drive vehicle. In summer a scheduled highland bus runs daily from Reykjavík. The nearest airport is Keflavík International Airport (KEF) near Reykjavík for international arrivals; in a straight line the nearest town is Akureyri, about 195 km to the north, with Akureyri Airport (AEY) about 192 km away, but the practical approach is from the south-west.