The Painted Highland: Landmannalaugar

For most of the year Landmannalaugar does not exist as a destination at all. The roads to it are shut, buried or flooded, and the place sits alone in the Icelandic interior with nobody in it. Then, for a few short weeks of summer, the rivers drop, the highland tracks open, and one of the strangest-coloured landscapes on the island becomes reachable — briefly, conditionally, and only if you respect what stands between you and it.

Landmannalaugar lies in the Fjallabak Nature Reserve, at around 600 metres in the southern Highlands. It is famous for two things that sit oddly together: mountains streaked in impossible colours, and a warm river you can lie down in at the end of a cold day's walk. It is also the northern trailhead of the Laugavegur, the 55-kilometre route to Þórsmörk that regularly appears on lists of the world's best treks. All of that is real. So is the access friction that keeps it honest.

Why the mountains are those colours

The hills here are rhyolite — a pale, silica-rich volcanic rock, containing more than about 70 per cent silica, formed when thick, sticky, high-silica magma cools near the surface. On its own, rhyolite tends toward light greys, pinks and creams. What gives Landmannalaugar its full painter's palette of ochre, rust, green, purple and near-black is what happens to that rock afterwards: heat and mineral-rich fluids from the geothermal system beneath alter it, and different minerals and oxidation states leave different colours in the stone. The dark ground at the foot of the hills is something else again — Laugahraun, an obsidian-bearing lava field from an eruption in the fifteenth century.

The colour is not paint and it is not a filter. It is chemistry: silica-rich rock, cooked and stained by the geothermal system that also warms the bathing stream.

Knowing this changes how you look at the place. The same heat that coloured the mountains is the heat you are sitting in when you bathe. The landscape and the hot spring are the same story told twice.

The hot spring, and the etiquette

The bathing spot is a natural stream where a hot geothermal source and cold water meet and mix, settling to a comfortable bathing range around 36–40°C depending on where you sit and the day. It is shallow, it is outdoors, and it is genuinely lovely after a walk. Two practical truths: swimwear is required, in keeping with Icelandic bathing custom at public and natural bathing places; and the temperature is uneven, hotter near the source and cool where the cold water comes in, so you find your spot rather than expecting a heated pool.

Getting there is the whole point

This is where Landmannalaugar earns its place in this journal. The access routes are F-roads — mountain tracks, F208 and F225 — and they are open only in summer, broadly late June to mid-September, with the exact opening set each year by the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration according to conditions. They are legally restricted to four-wheel-drive vehicles, and the southern approach in particular involves unbridged river crossings that a normal car cannot make and that a rental company's insurance will not cover.

River crossings in the Highlands are not a photo opportunity; they are the single most serious driving hazard in the interior. Water levels change with the weather and the time of day, and vehicles are lost in them every summer. If you are not confident and experienced in fording glacial rivers, the correct answer is not to attempt it. Which is exactly why so many people take the bus.

The scheduled highland buses — run by operators such as Trex and Reykjavík Excursions' Highland Bus service — are the sane way in for most visitors. They run daily in the summer season from Reykjavík via the south, are built for the roads and the rivers, and turn Landmannalaugar into a long but manageable day trip or the start of a multi-day walk. For 2026 the highland-bus season runs across the short summer window; confirm the exact first and last dates with the operator, because they track the road opening.

Staying, walking and the Laugavegur

There is a mountain hut and a campsite at Landmannalaugar, both run by Ferðafélag Íslands, the Iceland Touring Association. A bunk in the hut and a pitch on the campsite are the two ways to stay, and in peak summer they fill — the hut in particular needs booking well ahead. The campsite fee covers toilets, drinking water and the shelter; showers cost extra.

You do not have to walk the whole Laugavegur to get the reward. Day loops from the hut — up onto the rhyolite ridges, across the Laugahraun lava, to the steaming ground at Brennisteinsalda — give you the colour and the geothermal strangeness in a few hours. The full 55-kilometre trek to Þórsmörk is a serious multi-day undertaking with river crossings, exposed passes and fast-changing weather, and should be planned as one, not improvised.

Why the Silence Index is 58

Higher than the south-coast glaciers, and for a real reason: the friction here is structural. For most of the year you simply cannot come. When you can, the roads filter hard — 4x4-only, river crossings, a short season — and the interior swallows sound in a way the coast does not. Stand on a ridge above the hut in the evening after the day buses have gone and the quiet is close to total.

What keeps the score from going higher is that Landmannalaugar is also popular and well-served. In July and August the hut area and the bathing stream are busy, the buses are full, and the famous trek sends a steady file of walkers south. The solitude is real but it is time-of-day and time-of-year solitude: earn it by staying the night, walking out early, or coming at the very edges of the season when the road has just opened or is about to close.

Getting there — Reykjavík → the Highlands

1. Decide honestly whether to drive or take the bus. If you are not experienced at fording glacial rivers in a 4x4, take the scheduled highland bus.
2. Check the F-road status on road.is and the weather on vedur.is before you set out, and again on the morning of travel. Roads open and close on the reserve's own timetable, not the calendar's.
3. If driving: a proper 4x4, confirmed river-crossing insurance, and the knowledge of how to read a river. Never drive into water you have not assessed.
4. If taking the bus: book with a highland-bus operator, confirm the season's first and last service dates, and allow a long day.
5. Book the hut through Ferðafélag Íslands well ahead if you intend to stay; the campsite is first-served but also busy in peak weeks.

Indicative costs — verify before booking

What to pack

• Full waterproofs, warm layers, hat and gloves — highland weather turns from sun to horizontal rain in minutes, in any month
• Sturdy, broken-in hiking boots and, if walking, a change of socks for river crossings
• Swimwear and a quick-dry towel for the hot spring
• Food and water; services are minimal and there is no supermarket in the reserve
• Cash or card for hut, camping and showers, and a paper map or offline navigation

Where to stay

At Landmannalaugar itself, the choice is the hut or the campsite. Many visitors instead base in the lowlands around Hella or Hvolsvöllur and come up for a long day by bus or 4x4. Staying the night in the reserve is the single best way to get the quiet version — the mountains after the day-trippers leave are the reason to carry a sleeping bag.

Safety & responsible travel

• Never drive into a glacial river you have not assessed, and do not attempt the F-roads in a two-wheel-drive car. River crossings are the interior's most serious hazard.
• Check road.is and vedur.is before and during your trip; the F-roads open and close on conditions, not dates.
• Stay on marked trails and off the fragile, slow-growing vegetation and coloured slopes; the geothermal ground can be scalding and unstable.
• Carry out all waste. The reserve has minimal services and a short recovery season.
• Accessibility: this is a remote highland site with rough ground, river crossings and basic facilities; it is not suitable for those needing step-free or serviced access.

Nearby, and quieter

Deeper in Fjallabak, the Ljótipollur crater lake and the Hnausapollur explosion craters see far fewer people. The Laugavegur's southern half toward Álftavatn and Emstrur is quieter than the Landmannalaugar trailhead. And Þórsmörk, at the far end of the trek, is a green world entirely unlike the painted hills you started from.

Sources & further reading — checked 24 July 2026

1. Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration (road.is) — official road and F-road status. Used for the seasonal opening of F208/F225, the 4x4 requirement and the river-crossing hazard.
2. SafeTravel (Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue) — official travel-safety alerts. Used for the standing highland-driving and river-crossing safety guidance.
3. Icelandic Meteorological Office — official weather information. Used for the fast-changing highland weather guidance.
4. Environment Agency of Iceland (Umhverfisstofnun) — manager of the Fjallabak Nature Reserve. Used for the protected-area context and leave-no-trace rules.
5. Ferðafélag Íslands (Iceland Touring Association) — Landmannalaugar hut. Used only for practical detail: hut and campsite operation and indicative fees.
6. Geology.com — rhyolite reference. Used as a geological reference for rhyolite's high-silica composition and pale base colouring.
7. Trex — highland bus to Landmannalaugar (licensed operator). Used only for practical detail: scheduled summer bus access and season dates.
8. Parka — Landmannalaugar. Used only for practical detail on parking/services at the site.

Official and scientific bodies are used for safety, regulatory and scientific claims. Commercial and association operators are used only for practical detail such as access, hut operation, season and indicative pricing — never as the authority for a safety or scientific statement.