Route km 618 Northeast
Mývatn — Geothermal Fields, Pseudocraters, and a Bathing Stop
A single area name covering half a dozen genuinely different stops — steaming mud pools, a volcanic caldera, a lava-pillar field, and a geothermal bathing pool — spread widely enough that you need to actually choose, not just drive through.
- Half-day version
- Hverir + Nature Baths
- Full-day version
- Adds Krafla + Dimmuborgir
- Nearest fuel
- Reykjahlíð
- Bathing pool
- Book ahead in summer
The decision / 01
Half a day or a full day — decide first
Mývatn isn't one stop, it's a cluster: Hverir's mud pools, Námafjall's ridge trail, the Krafla volcanic area with the Víti crater, the Dimmuborgir lava-pillar field, and the Mývatn Nature Baths are all separate locations within a roughly 15–20 minute drive of each other. Trying to fit all of them into a rushed hour produces the worst version of every one of them — pick a scope before you arrive.
The compact option / 02
Hverir and Námafjall: 45–90 minutes
Hverir is a compact, barren geothermal field of bubbling mud pools and steam vents — most visitors need 15–30 minutes at ground level. From the same car park, an easy-to-moderate marked trail climbs Námafjall ridge (about 2.5 km round trip, roughly 120 m of elevation gain) for a panoramic view over the whole geothermal field, usually under an hour.
The full circuit / 03
Adding Krafla and Dimmuborgir
Krafla, a short drive north, centres on a 10 km-diameter volcanic caldera and the Víti crater; Leirhnjúkur, part of the same volcanic system, lets you walk across relatively recent lava fields still actively reshaped by geothermal activity. Dimmuborgir's dark, twisted lava-pillar formations sit closer to the lake itself. Treat this combination as a genuine full day, not an add-on to the geothermal stop.
End the day / 04
The Mývatn Nature Baths, right next to Námafjall
Often described as the Blue Lagoon of the north, this geothermal bathing pool sits just on the other side of Mt. Námafjall from Hverir — a genuinely good way to end either the compact or full version of a Mývatn day. It gets busy in summer; booking a time slot ahead of arrival avoids the longest waits.
Keep moving / 05