Around Lake Mývatn (3) - Leirhnjúkur: a walk on warm ground

From the monochrome world of the dormant Hverfjall crater we move closer to the heart of the Krafla volcanic system, which still breathes. This is a place of contrasts, where sulfur‑yellow, mineral‑rich ground meets black, still steaming lava. The most recent, well‑known series of eruptions happened in 1975 to 1984 and is known as the Krafla Fires. I wrote briefly about that in the post on the Víti crater and the Krafla power station. So the lava fields around us are - in volcanic terms - very fresh. Of all the small trips around Lake Mývatn, the hike to Leirhnjúkur was my favorite. If I come back to this area, I’ll definitely get to know its paths better.

Leirhnjúkur is a small hill with a view over the whole battlefield. From up here the scale makes sense. What at ground level looks like a chaotic mix becomes readable from above. You can trace where lava flowed and which patches were spared, spot fresh craters, and find places that are still warm and steaming.

At first, the path runs through terrain that feels like the Hverir geothermal field. The ground is tinted yellow, red, and brown by mineral deposits. Here and there you see bluish‑gray rills and small pools filled with milky water with a touch of turquoise. Familiar steam wraps around us.

You need to stick to the marked paths. In places the ground is hot, and the crust that separates you from what boils underneath can be very thin.

As we climb higher, the contrasts get clearer - fresh lava against mineral‑stained earth.

A walk on warm ground

The top of Leirhnjúkur is a mix of black‑brown lava set in many forms. You can imagine it easing out of the ground and flowing like a thick stream, or bursting in shreds from bubbling vents. In some places it set into a cracked, uniform surface. But the area isn’t asleep - steam seeps out of seemingly solid ground and now and then wraps us in a thick veil.

Again it feels like walking on another planet. Maybe that’s right, because being here is like a trip back to an early Earth, when land was still forming and complex life was only a distant plan.

A cosmic workshop

Higher up, leaving the densest steam behind, I realize the work here isn’t finished. This workshop is still running. The mess around says the workers just dropped their tools for a moment and will be back any second. About fifteen years ago, drilling for the Krafla geothermal power station hit a magma chamber only about two kilometers below the surface - very shallow, and a reminder that the area is truly active.

The chaos around me is full of contradictions. It doesn’t tire the eyes, it doesn’t overwhelm. Craters, wide fractures, piles of broken rock - together they make a balanced composition. As I wrote before - nature is a thoughtful designer, and even in apparent chaos there’s intent and order.

We drop lower, close the loop, and head back to the parking lot. Along the way we pass places where life has settled in. These are probably areas from earlier Krafla activity, the so‑called Mývatn Fires in the 18th century. Even here, under moss and grass, the texture of solidified lava is easy to see.

We end our time around Lake Mývatn with this walk. The next morning a snowstorm woke us up and pushed us to leave the campsite in a hurry. We started the long way home - west. We spent the last two days of the trip driving the north coast - with a few quiet stops on the way that I’ll come back to in the next posts. See you!