Iceland
Landmannalaugar
Steaming hot springs bubbling at the base of obsidian flows and rhyolite peaks.
Steam rises from water the colour of weak tea, curling against rhyolite peaks streaked rust, lilac and moss green. Landmannalaugar is where the Laugavegur Trek begins and where the earth's palette seems calibrated to overwhelm — you wade into the warm river and the mountains close around you like an amphitheatre.
Landmannalaugar sits at around six hundred metres in the Fjallabak Nature Reserve, at a junction of geological forces. The natural hot spring at the base camp is fed by the same volcanic system that poured out the Laugahraun obsidian field around 1477 — one of Iceland's youngest lava flows — and the rhyolite mountains take their rainbow striping from silica-rich minerals oxidising at different rates. The 55-kilometre Laugavegur Trek to Þórsmörk starts here and is ranked among the world's finest long-distance walks. In summer, highland buses run from Reykjavík, so the painted mountains don't require a 4x4 of your own.
Solo
A rite of passage for solo hikers: soak at dawn, trek the painted mountains, sleep in highland huts with nothing but geology for company.
Friends
The Laugavegur is a bonding experience — days of rainbow mountains, river crossings and hot-spring soaks no group forgets.
- A natural hot spring at the trailhead lets you soak surrounded by rhyolite peaks.
- The Laugavegur Trek starts here — ranked among the world's finest long-distance hikes.
- The Laugahraun obsidian field dates from around 1477, one of Iceland's youngest lavas.
- Summer highland buses make the interior reachable without a 4x4 of your own.
Cook your own supper in the mountain hut's gas-stove kitchen while steam drifts past the windows.
The warden's shelf of dried meals, hot drinks and chocolate — the highlands' honest larder.
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