Mývatn is always such a fun place to visit and I have been there frequently, but I have never gone around it completely. Which is why we decided to go for a day trip around Mývatn when were in Akureyri. I wanted to write a little bit about the stops we took around the area.

Skútustaðagígar

The first stop of the trip was Skútustaðagígar, which are pseudo-craters (or rootless cones). The area is very interesting for two reasons. Firstly, there are beautiful views over Mývatn. Secondly, pseudo-craters are just so strange to look at. We have several of these craters around Iceland and I always find it so strange seeing them.

I wrote about the time we hiked up Vindbelgur during the summer of 2017 and let me tell you I did not remember it being so high! Seeing Vindbelgur across Mývatn was just beautiful.

Lake Mývatn Panoramic Point

Our second stop was the Lake Mývatn Panoramic Point. Which is basically just a parking lot so that people can take pretty pictures. Which is important because having people stop on the road is very dangerous.

Dimmuborgir

As we walked through the beautiful landscape by the soothing sound of bzzz-bzzzz of a drone. Yea, not so soothing. People have to stop bringing drones to Iceland, there are enough of those videos around the internet and the drones are extremely disruptive and annoying.

Dimmuborgir has an interesting history since it was almost covered in sand in 1940 because of land erosion. In 1942 they started to protect the area and are still doing so today. That is why it is REALLY important not to walk outside of the marked areas.

It was really nice walking around Dimmuborgir and seeing the cave where the Jólasveinar (The Yule Lads) live was just amazing.

Hverfjall (Hverfell)

Hverfjall (Hverfell) was a fun hike, it isn’t very long to walk up the mountain (10-20 min) but it takes an hour to walk the rim of the crater (around 3.2km).

The fun thing about Hverfjall (Hverfell) is that it have two names, one with the affix -fjall meaning mountain and the other one -fell meaning more of a hill rather than a mountain.

Hverir

Hverir was very muddy! The whole area has such an alien vibe to it, it looks like you are on Mars. But it was fun to walk around the area. There aren’t any erupting geysers at that area but more of mudpots. Which I find so fascinating to look at and soothing to hear the blub-blub-blub of the mudpots.

Krafla

I think I need to visit Krafla again, the wind was really strong when we were there and I could barely stand. There are a lot of hiking trails in the area which would be fun to explore one day.

Grjótagjá

I think Grjótagjá was the most disappointing aspect of this trip. They have closed the area so there isn’t much to see. So I wouldn’t recommend going there, Grjótagjá is closed.

That was basically our day around Mývatn. There are still more places I haven’t been to in that area that I really want to look at, so there will be another Mývatn post in the future!

-Katrin