Landmannalaugar () is a location in Iceland's Fjallabak Nature Reserve in the Highlands. It is at the edge of the Laugahraun

lava field Lava fields are large, mostly flat areas of surface or subaquatic lava flows. Such features are generally composed of highly fluid basalt lava, and can extend for tens or hundreds of miles across the underlying terrain. Morphology and str ...

, formed in an eruption in approximately 1477. It is known for its natural geothermal

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

and surrounding landscape. Landmannalaugar is at the northern end of the Laugavegur hiking trail, and the Iceland Touring Association operates a mountain hut accommodating hikers. During the high tourist season, a small shop and a horse tour agency operate there, as well as the

ICE-SAR ''Ingibjörg'', a ship of Slysavarnarfélagið Landsbjörg, at port in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland Slysavarnarfélagið Landsbjörg or the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue (ICE-SAR) is a national association of rescue units and accident ...

highland patrol in Fjallabak. Several bus companies have regular trips to and from Landmannalaugar during the tourist season.

Routes

Four routes lead to Landmannalaugar, including one accessible by car, though the road is rough, with large stones on the road and washboard sections. Rented cars are not allowed on either road, as F roads are usually only for four-wheel-drive vehicles. The most accessible route to Landmannalaugar is via Road 30 from the main road and into Road 32, across the Sultartangi hydro-electric dam, going onto F26, then F208, and just before arriving in Landmannalaugar, making a right turn onto F224. Road 26 can also be reached directly from Road 1, just before the small village of

Hella ''Hella'' is an American slang term that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is used as an intensifying adverb such as in "hella bad" or "hella good" and was eventually added to the '' Oxford English Dictionary'' in 2002. It is possib ...

, passing through a typical Icelandic farmland landscape. There are also roads leading to Landmannalaugar from the east via

Eldgjá Eldgjá (, "fire canyon") is a volcano and a canyon in Iceland. Eldgjá is part of the Katla volcano; it is a segment of a long chain of volcanic craters and fissure vents that extends northeast away from Katla volcano almost to the Vatnajöku ...

or the north via Sprengisandur, both 4WD roads only.

Activities

Hiking

Landmannalaugar is famous for its hiking trails. The most popular routes include the two-hour hike through the Laugahraun �lœiːɣaˌr̥œiːnlava field to Brennisteinsalda ("Sulphur Wave"), the one-hour hike up Bláhnjúkur ("Blue Peak"), and the four-hour hike to Ljótipollur �ljouːtɪˌpʰɔtlʏr̥crater lake ("Ugly Puddle"). Landmannalaugar can also be the starting point of several longer hiking trails, such as the three to four-day Hellismannaleið �hɛtlɪsˌmanːaˌleiːθroute at the base of the

Hekla Hekla (), or Hecla, is a stratovolcano in the south of Iceland with a height of . Hekla is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes; over 20 eruptions have occurred in and around the volcano since 874. During the Middle Ages, the Icelandic Nor ...

volcano and the Sprengisandur route for hikers prepared to travel through the volcanic desert. Landmannalaugar is the usual starting point for a four-day-long hiking trail called Laugavegur, whose name means "The Landmannalaugar Trail"—"Laugar" being a shortened version of "Landmannalaugar". The standard four-day hike ends in Thórsmörk, but one or two days can be added to trek to

Skógar Skógar (pronounced ), literally "forests", is a small Icelandic village with a population of roughly 25 located at the south of the Eyjafjallajökull glacier, in the municipality of Rangárþing eystra. The area is known for its waterfall, Sk� ...

near the coast via Fimmvörðuháls between the two glaciers,

Eyjafjallajökull Eyjafjallajökull (; ), sometimes referred to by the numeronym E15, is one of the smaller ice caps of Iceland, north of Skógar and west of Mýrdalsjökull. The ice cap covers the caldera of a volcano with a summit elevation of . The volcan ...

and

Mýrdalsjökull Mýrdalsjökull (pronounced , Icelandic for "(the) mire dale glacier" or "(the) mire valley glacier") is an ice cap in the south of Iceland. It is to the north of Vík í Mýrdal and to the east of the smaller ice cap Eyjafjallajökull. Between ...

. The huts on the Laugavegur and Fimmvörðuháls trails are (from north to south): * Landmannalaugar * Hrafntinnusker * Álftavatn * Hvanngil * Botnar * Thórsmörk * Fimmvörðuháls

Other activities

Icelandic horse riding has been available in the area each summer. The horse riding trips visit places, such as Jökulgil �jœːkʏlˌcɪːl̥(Glacier Valley), that can often be difficult to access on foot and are inaccessible by car due to no official roads.

Arctic char The Arctic char or Arctic charr (''Salvelinus alpinus'') is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes and arctic and subarctic coastal waters. Its distribution is Circumpolar North. It spawns Spawn is the eggs a ...

fishing takes place in Landmannalaugar and nearby lakes. Geothermal hot springs are also present in the area and can be publicly used for bathing. From late June through the summer, a shop called the ''Mountain Mall'' is operated inside a green American school bus from the 1970s, which stocks groceries and camping items. The buses operate from June through September. The hut is used as a base for

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreatio ...

in the winter.

References

External links