If you were wondering why Iceland is known as the “Land of Fire and Ice”, a few days’ walk through the mind-bending geology of the Laugavegur Trail should clear things up. This four-day hike traverses lands forged by volcanism – obsidian lava fields, sputtering geothermal springs and rainbow-hued ravines – as well as serving up views of some of Iceland’s most famous glaciers.
Discover Iceland’s most famous hiking trail with this exclusive extract from Hike, our brand new book revealing 125 spectacular walking trails across the globe. Get your copy from May 5.
Discover Iceland’s most famous hiking trail with this exclusive extract from Hike, our brand new book revealing 125 spectacular walking trails across the globe. Get your copy from May 5.
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View BookIn a place where nature’s majesty is so plain to see, it’s important to respect it. The trail is only open from June to September, and that’s for good reason: fog and snow smother the icefields for the rest of the year, making hiking an inadvisable, indeed potentially lethal, pursuit.
Even in summer, adverse weather can easily roll in, and you’ll be fording a couple of rivers whatever the conditions, so this isn’t one for total beginners. That said, if you’re reasonably fit, willing to get your feet wet and don’t mind sacrificing a few creature comforts, hiking Laugavegurinn promises to be one of life’s great adventures.
Even in summer, adverse weather can easily roll in, and you’ll be fording a couple of rivers whatever the conditions, so this isn’t one for total beginners. That said, if you’re reasonably fit, willing to get your feet wet and don’t mind sacrificing a few creature comforts, hiking Laugavegurinn promises to be one of life’s great adventures.
Running for 52 km (32 miles), the trail’s natural beauty is ratcheted up to the extreme from the start, with the rhyolite mountains of Landmannalaugar catching the light in hues of red, orange and icy blue. Laugavegurinn translates as “hot springs route”, and it certainly lives up to its name, with steam from bubbling pools shrouding the lava-strewn canyons between Hrafntinnusker and Álftavatn.
Perhaps the most striking landscape, though, belongs to Mælifellssandur, where a vivid green volcano rises like a little elfin hat from a desert of pure black sand. Amid such desolate beauty, the basic mountain huts you’ll call home are oases of comfort and warmth, providing a dose of normality amid this strange and unforgettable plane.
As you descend to the trail’s end in the glacier-sandwiched Thórsmörk (Valley of Thor), it feels like returning to earth from another world. But you’ll be left with no doubt in your mind that this is truly a land of the gods.
Scenic detour
If you’ve got enough left in the tank to put some extra miles in, it’s worth taking the hour’s detour from Emstrur to the canyon of Markarfljótsgljúfur: a deep cleft in the earth with walls of vivid green and red. And beyond the trail’s end lies Sönghellir cave, famous for its haunting acoustics.
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