Landmannalaugar, Iceland: The Highland Rhyolite Mountains

Most of Iceland’s famous sights lie within sight of the Ring Road. Landmannalaugar does not. It sits in the uninhabited interior, at the end of a gravel mountain road, in a basin ringed by mountains coloured ochre, rust, pink, grey and moss green, with a wall of black obsidian lava at its edge and a warm stream running out from beneath it. It is the best-known corner of the highlands, the start of the Laugavegur trail, and, for a few months each summer, one of the busiest places in the country that has no permanent population at all. This guide covers what makes the landscape so unusual, the hot spring that gave Landmannalaugar its name, how the highland roads and rivers govern when you can get there, and how much walking is involved. Landmannalaugar is the focus of Day 15 of our Iceland cultural and wilderness small group tour, which turns inland from the south coast for a field trip into the highlands.

Where is Landmannalaugar?

Landmannalaugar lies in the southern highlands, north of the ice caps of Mýrdalsjökull and Eyjafjallajökull and east of the volcano Hekla, inside the Fjallabak Nature Reserve. Iceland protected the reserve in 1979. According to Iceland’s Nature Conservation Agency (Náttúruverndarstofnun), which took over the management of protected areas from the Environment Agency in 2025, the reserve covers about 44,600 hectares and lies entirely more than 500 metres above sea level: a mountainous country of lava fields, rivers and lakes, shaped by volcanic activity and geothermal heat. Its stated aims are modest and clear, to keep a fragile landscape intact so that later generations can see it as visitors do today.

It is not a gentle place. The growing season for plants is barely two months, soils are thin and loose, and much of the ground is bare rock and sand. The agency gives July, the warmest month, an average temperature of only around 7 to 8°C, and warns that winter conditions and frost can occur at any time of year. The people who knew these uplands best were shepherds. Farmers from the lowland districts drove sheep into the highlands for summer grazing, and their autumn round-ups through lava and sand were long regarded as hazardous undertakings, made worse by old fears of outlaws and trolls in the wilderness.

Rhyolite, obsidian and a restless caldera

The colours that make Landmannalaugar famous come from rhyolite, a silica-rich volcanic rock that is far less common in Iceland than the dark basalt you see along the coast. The reserve covers part of the Torfajökull area, which the agency describes as the most extensive rhyolite area in the country and one of its largest geothermal fields. Torfajökull is an active central volcano with a large oval caldera, and many of the rhyolite mountains around its rim were formed in a series of eruptions about 57,000 years ago.

Rhyolite here is usually grey, yellow, pink or green, and the agency attributes this varied palette mostly to geothermal alteration: heat and water working on the rock from below, which also leaves bands of orange, rust and sulphur yellow. Where rhyolite magma cooled quickly, it formed obsidian, a black volcanic glass, and Landmannalaugar has one of the most striking examples in Laugahraun, the lava field that rises like a black rampart beside the hut area. Laugahraun is generally dated to an eruption around 1477, when, according to the agency, the Torfajökull area erupted at the same time as the Bárðarbunga system to the northeast, as it had in 871. Walking into it, you see glassy black boulders, splintered grey lava and steam rising from vents beyond. For the wider story of how Iceland’s volcanoes built landscapes like this, see our guide to Iceland’s lunar landscapes and geology.

The mountains closest to the hut area have names that describe them well. Brennisteinsalda, roughly “sulphur wave”, rises to about 855 metres, its flanks streaked with yellow sulphur, red iron oxides and green moss, with fumaroles steaming near the path. Bláhnúkur, the “blue peak”, is a steeper, darker mountain on the other side of the valley. Both formed in volcanic activity during the last ice age.

The hot spring that gave Landmannalaugar its name

The laugar in Landmannalaugar means warm pools. According to Visit South Iceland, the name derives from a hot pool that rises under the Laugahraun lava field, and the result today is a shallow, warm stream at the foot of the lava, a short walk from the hut area. Travellers have valued it for a long time. The agency records that Landmannalaugar was long a refuge for people crossing the highlands, grassy enough to graze horses for a few days, and that coffee made with water from the warm stream was thought to taste excellent and even to have healing properties. A small stacked hut beside the stream, thought to be very old, is said to fit three people.

Can you bathe in the hot spring at Landmannalaugar?

Yes: the natural hot spring is open to the public for bathing, and it is one of the reasons Landmannalaugar is so popular in summer. The water temperature varies with where you sit and with conditions on the day, the stream bed is soft and uneven, and changing facilities are basic, so getting out into the highland wind is the hardest part. Take care around the geothermal ground in general; the agency warns visitors to watch their step near hot springs to avoid hot mud or water. The tour’s day description notes that the area is known for natural hot spring bathing, but it does not list a bathe as part of the group’s programme, so if a soak matters to you, ask a Tour Specialist before you book.

When can you visit Landmannalaugar?

In practice, Landmannalaugar is a summer destination, because it depends on highland roads that are closed for much of the year. Safetravel, Iceland’s official travel safety service, says the highland F-roads are usually closed from mid-September until June or July, and that outside that period only modified vehicles with experienced drivers can get through. The Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration explains that snow cover is the main factor in when mountain roads open, and that roads through protected areas may stay closed until the land as a whole can withstand visitors. Its published record for the F208 from Sigalda to Landmannalaugar shows opening dates varying by about a month between recent years, from late May to late June.

The main access is the F208, the northern Fjallabak route, with the last 2.5 kilometres on the F224 to the hut area. The agency notes that the whole route is passable for four-wheel-drive vehicles, but that two rivers must be forded just before Landmannalaugar; smaller SUVs and less experienced drivers are advised to park at the northern car park and cross on a footbridge instead. Safetravel is blunt about fords: depth and current change constantly, “if you’re unsure of crossing a river then don’t do it”, and no insurance covers damage to a vehicle while crossing a river. At the time of writing, people driving themselves in a private or rental car in the peak summer weeks must reserve parking in advance to arrive between 9 am and 4 pm, while coaches and tour vehicles park in a separate area; the rules are reviewed each year, so check before you go. None of this is fixed. Road openings, closures and conditions change with the weather and with volcanic activity, so check umferdin.is for road conditions and Safetravel for alerts before you go.

Walking among the rhyolite mountains

Numerous marked trails start from the hut area, and the agency suggests most visitors can find one to suit their level. The shortest loops climb into Laugahraun, where the path winds between obsidian boulders and steam vents before descending back towards the hut area. Longer options climb Brennisteinsalda or Bláhnúkur for views across the valley, and the crater lake of Ljótipollur, “ugly puddle”, lies a longer walk to the north. In summer, rangers from the Nature Conservation Agency are on hand to advise on trails and lead scheduled ranger walks, and the Iceland Touring Association runs the huts, campsite and facilities.

Landmannalaugar is also the northern end of the Laugavegur, perhaps Iceland’s most famous long-distance trail, which runs about 55 kilometres south over high, often snowy ground by Hrafntinnusker and Álftavatn to Þórsmörk. Most walkers take around four days, staying in mountain huts booked well ahead. Beyond Þórsmörk, a separate route crosses the Fimmvörðuháls pass to the coast at Skógar, which is why our guide to Skógafoss and the south coast, the tour’s stop the day before, ends where this one begins.

How hard is the walking at Landmannalaugar?

The short walks are moderate rather than strenuous, but the ground is rough everywhere and you should expect some climbing. Paths through Laugahraun are narrow and stony, with loose gravel and sharp obsidian close at hand, and they rise and fall over the uneven surface of the lava. The agency warns that the rock in the reserve is very loose and that climbing off the paths is dangerous, that streams are common, and that the temperature can fall quickly in wind. Sturdy walking boots with good grip, walking poles if you use them, a waterproof jacket, a warm layer, gloves and a hat are all worth carrying, even on a bright day.

Day 15: from Ásólfsskáli to the highlands

Day 15 begins on the south coast, at the foot of Eyjafjallajökull. The group meets local farmers at Ásólfsskáli and hears about the effects of the eruption of March and April 2010 on their farm life. That eruption began in March on the Fimmvörðuháls pass and moved to the summit of Eyjafjallajökull in mid-April, spreading ash over farms below the mountain and across Europe’s airspace. From there the tour heads into the Icelandic highlands.

The field trip takes the group into the interior to Landmannalaugar, with its rhyolite mountains and obsidian lava field, for one of the short to moderate hikes, taking approximately two hours in total. The day also includes a visit to the LAVA Centre, an interactive exhibition on the science and aesthetics of Iceland’s geological features, which opened in Hvolsvöllur in 2017. The tour is rated Level 2, Moderate: participants should be able to climb and descend stairs, and manage three to five hours of physical activity a day, the equivalent of walking up to 8 kilometres on uneven ground. An Odyssey Program Leader travels with the group throughout. Highland access always depends on the season and conditions on the day, which no operator controls; a Tour Specialist can explain what that means for your departure.

The following day the circuit closes, with a horse and tomato farm at Friðheimar, Gullfoss and the Geysir geothermal area, where Strokkur erupts every few minutes, the sights covered in our guide to the Golden Circle, and a visit to the Hellisheiði power plant to learn how Icelanders put the heat beneath them to work. Our article on Iceland’s geothermal energy explains how the same forces that colour the rhyolite at Landmannalaugar now heat homes and greenhouses across the country. To see where Landmannalaugar falls in the whole journey, our Iceland Ring Road itinerary follows the route from start to finish.

Is Landmannalaugar worth the journey?

Yes: nowhere else on a circuit of Iceland shows you the interior so directly, and nowhere else puts rhyolite, obsidian and live geothermal ground side by side in a single short walk. It is a long day, the road is rough and the weather is never certain, but the contrast with the green farmland of the coast that morning is the point. You leave a landscape shaped by people and arrive in one that has barely been shaped by them at all.

Landmannalaugar rewards mature travellers who take it at their own pace: a slow walk into the black lava, a pause to look back over the coloured hills. On the Iceland cultural and wilderness tour, a small group of up to 16 travellers reaches it near the end of a full circuit of the island, with an Odyssey Program Leader on hand and the walking kept to a short, moderate route.