Landmannalaugar

Where it sits. Landmannalaugar lies at about 600 metres in the Fjallabak Nature Reserve, in the southern highlands of Iceland roughly 180 kilometres east of Reykjavík by road. It occupies a flat gravel plain at the foot of rhyolite hills, hard against the northern edge of Laugahraun, an obsidian lava field that flowed here in the late fifteenth century from the Torfajökull volcanic system. The name means the people's pools of the Land district, and it refers to the reason the place has been used for centuries: a stream of geothermal water emerges at the edge of the lava, mixes with a cold stream, and forms a natural bathing pool at a temperature of roughly 36 to 40 °C depending on where you sit.

Why the mountains are those colours. Most of Iceland is basalt, and basalt is black or grey. Torfajökull is the country's largest rhyolite complex, and rhyolite weathers into pale creams, pinks and ochres. Add sulphur staining from active geothermal ground, iron oxides in rust and orange, black obsidian in the lava, dark grey ash from Hekla's eruptions 30 kilometres west, and thick green moss on the older surfaces, and the result is a landscape that photographs as though the saturation has been pushed. Brennisteinsalda, 855 metres, is the emblematic peak: its name means sulphur wave, and its flanks carry all of those colours in bands on a single face. Bláhnúkur, 940 metres, rises directly behind the huts and is dark blue-grey by contrast.

Walking from the hut. The Bláhnúkur circuit takes two to three hours and climbs steeply on loose scree to a summit with a view across the whole reserve, descending through the narrow Grænagil gorge between the lava and the mountain. The Brennisteinsalda route crosses Laugahraun on a marked path through blocks of obsidian, with steam vents beside the trail. Ljótipollur, an explosion crater holding a red-rimmed lake, sits about eight kilometres north and is reachable on foot or by vehicle. Above all, Landmannalaugar is the northern trailhead of the Laugavegur, the 55-kilometre route south to Þórsmörk usually walked over three or four days with huts at Hrafntinnusker, Álftavatn and Emstrur; it is the busiest long-distance trail in the country and needs bookings made months ahead.

Getting in, which is the hard part. There is no paved access. F208 approaches from the north off Route 26 near the Sigalda power station and is the easier line, with fords that are usually shallow. F208 from the south, off Route 208 near Búland, crosses the Jökulgilskvísl, a glacier-fed river that can rise sharply in warm weather and has stranded many vehicles. F225 comes in from the west through Dómadalur. All three require a genuine four-wheel-drive vehicle and are closed to two-wheel-drive hire cars by contract as well as by common sense; rental agreements exclude water damage from fording entirely. Roads normally open in the second half of June and close with the first serious snow, often in September. Scheduled highland buses run from Reykjavík, Hella and Skaftafell in summer, take around four hours from the capital, and are the pragmatic choice for anyone not confident with rivers.

Facilities on the plain. The Ferðafélag Íslands hut sleeps around 78 in bunkrooms and there is a large campsite on the gravel beside it, exposed to wind and often cold at night even in July. A converted bus sells basic supplies in season. Toilets and showers are paid; there is no fuel, no bank and no reliable mobile coverage in parts of the reserve. Wardens are present through the summer and manage both the campsite and trail advice. Changing facilities at the pool are rudimentary, and bathing is at the visitor's own risk.

On screen and in the imagination. The Icelandic highlands have carried a long screen career as somewhere other than Iceland — prehistoric Earth, other planets, imagined norths — and Fjallabak's colour and emptiness make it a favourite of commercial and music-video crews, who need permits from the Environment Agency to work here. It is worth registering that this is landscape rather than heritage. The sagas that shaped Norse literature were written in the lowlands, and the modern television dramas that popularised the Viking Age were filmed in Ireland, not in Iceland's interior. What Landmannalaugar preserves is the terrain that made Icelandic settlement a coastal affair in the first place: an interior that could be crossed in summer, used for grazing and outlaw refuge, and never permanently lived in.

Timing. July and August are the reliable months. Snow patches persist on Laugavegur into July, weather can turn to sleet and near-zero temperatures in any month, and the pool is at its best in the evening once the day walkers have driven out.