Photo Friday: Laugavegur Trail (Iceland), Day1

September 6-10 this year, I hiked Iceland's famous "Volcano Trail," the Laugavegur track. I had mixed weather, but the first day combined amazing scenery with good weather, and as a result I have far too many photos to do more than the one day in this post (besides, I haven't finished editing the rest of the hike, let alone the following 2 weeks in Iceland).

The excitement started with a 7:30 a.m. bus from Reykjavik. I arrived at the bus station as the sun was about to rise.

It's a small city, so the bus depot was only a 15-minute walk from my hotel.

It's a 3 1/2 hour ride to the start of the trail at Landmannalaugar, so we had a much-appreciated "comfort stop" partway.

 
The bus ride was definitely part of the excitement, as this was my first chance to see much of Iceland beyond the city. I managed to score a front seat (always my goal due to motion sickness issues), which allowed for some good photo ops.

As far as I could tell, we drove around about 3 sides of Hekla, historically Iceland's most active volcano (last eruption in February 2000) and responsible for much of the land surface of the country. Mostly we didn't quite see the summit.

Close to half the drive, time-wise, was on gravel roads requiring tough tires and the ability to ford streams. That's one reason the bus is a good way to get there.

 

By a quarter past 11, I was ready to start hiking. My trek was independent; I had booked the bus and hut spaces through an agency but it was up to me to follow the trail--and to haul my clothes, sleeping bag, and food for the trip. Since I didn't need a tent or cooking equipment, I was able to do it in a modest daypack weighing only just over 20 lbs at the start (and well under by the end). I had to be prepared to hike in sun, wind, rain, and snow (and did, in fact, encounter all of those things).

Obligatory selfie with the sign at the start of the trail. Pretty sure that day was the only one I wore the sun hat!

Most of these photos don't need a lot of commentary. Just enjoy them. The volcanic landscape was amazingly colorful, especially for a landscape without plants beyond the odd bit of Icelandic moss (aka lichen).

Looking back at Landmannalaugar hut. The area gets a lot of day use, as people come to hike or to soak in the hot spring there (or both). With some regret, I hiked right on out of there, not having time to soak in the hot spring.

My day's hike was supposed to be 7.5 miles, though it proved in fact to be under 7. It did include about 2000' of climbing (and some 600' of descending). The first mile or two was thick with dayhikers, out to appreciate the striking beauty of the area.

 

Just above the hut area this valley had the last significant vegetation I saw until the last day.

Steaming mountainsides are a signature feature of the area. Of the whole country, to be fair.

I made a small detour to a viewpoint atop a hill just off the trail. This was the destination of most of the dayhikers. It was also fiercely windy. The clouds building up here did drop a little rain on me, but it soon cleared up and remained pleasant for the rest of the day.

 

  

The gleaming trail leading out of this gully (one of many, many such I crossed along the trail) were, as I feared, shining because they were muddy and wet. You can't hike this trail if you are afraid of getting wet and dirty.

As I approached the high point of the trail the views got bigger. I was grateful for skies clear enough to see some of the larger picture; that was a grace we would not have again until the end of the trip.

Near the high point we also entered a field of obsidian.

Gleaming volcanic glass. I burned a lot of pixels trying to get a photo that captured the feel of the obsidian.

The trail topped out at about 3400' just before reaching our hut, perched on the edge of a vast caldera. At this latitude, 3400' is high alpine stuff, indeed (as far as weather and biome are concerned. It's nice to enjoy the alpine without actually being at altitude).

The Hrafntinnusker hut, which also seemed to carry the name Hoskuldsskali. The result was that none of us could name the hut when challenged by the (wonderful) hut warden.

 
Our hut warden gave us a great after-dinner talk, a run-down of weather and trail conditions, how and where to cross the rivers, and some language lessons about the meanings of place names. I could wish I knew Icelandic, as it does feel like every name tells a story.

Looking out the hut window.

After dinner I did a little walk farther up the hill, to catch the views.

Think I was looking across more distance than I thought to the Myrdalsjokull ice sheet.

I even got a nice sunset that evening--the only one for many days!

 

The wardens at each hut posted the forecast for each day. It was always worth consulting, evening and (as in this case) the next morning. Of course, in a way it didn't matter, since barring a life-threatening blizzard, there was little choice but to hike on. Still: nice to know how to layer.

Those wind speeds were not trivial, and may have been lower than what we experienced.

In the morning, fog and drizzle had settled on us, and the peaks had vanished. The next two days I crossed some wild landscapes, and missed a lot of it, but still came away with some good photos (almost all with the cell phone, as my camera had to crawl into the pack and stay dry!) which I'll share next week! 

For the rest of the trip, see here, and here. 

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2025   
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated.


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