Eyjafjöll are a mountain range in South Iceland, the name literally means The Mountains of Islands. The name derives from Westman Islands, just off the coast below, and the islands are easily visible from the mountains when the sky is clear, as it was on this day. Eyjafjöll are among the highest mountains in Iceland, 1666 m, and connecting two glaciers, Mýrdalsjökull and Eyjafjallajökull. This is one of the most volcanically active areas in Iceland, and Eyjafjallajökull made the world news when the volcano below erupted in 2010 and the ashes halted flight traffic across Europe.

I went on the hike with a local hiking club called Toppfarar, and they had not tried this route before, so it was partly about exploration and discovery, even for the two guides. Next to the route and within viewing distance on this clear day, was the famous route over Fimmvörðuháls, where I hiked in 2023 and was among the most fun hikes I have been on so far.

We were asked to bring chain spikes to put under the hiking shoes, as well as wading shoes as we might need to cross a river on the way. In the end, we needed neither of these, it was one of the best weather days in Iceland so far this year and we might not even have a better day for the remainder of the year even though summer is ahead of us. Just to highlight how unusual it was, I checked the weather in Madeira where I spent the winter and Iceland was even warmer than Madeira that day, truly a rare occurrence. 

We started our trip from Reykjavík at 8 AM in the morning and first drove to Hvolsvöllur for a short pit stop. Then we continued driving to our meeting spot below Eyjafjöll and started the hike at around 10:30. The estimated arrival time to be back in Reykjavík was at 19:00 but we arrived in town around two hours later, which was still to be expected due to the nature of the hike, being an exploration. That was also part of what made it fun. 

The hiking distance was around 15 km and elevation was up to around 800 meters. We started hiking alongside a beautiful canyon called Kaldaklifsgil further inland and towards Eyjafjallajökull in the distance with a slow increase in elevation for the first few kilometers. After that, we started going up a steep hill towards the first mountain top on the way. After reaching several peaks, we started our descent, seeing the famous pool Seljavallalaug below us. The hike was around 15 km long and took eight hours.

For the rest, I will let the photos speak for themselves.

Need more inspiration? Check out our list of 5 other bucket-list worthy hikes in Iceland

Hiking in South Iceland

South Iceland offers many more beautiful hiking routes, especially in the area of this day hike close to Eyjafjallajökull, including Þórsmörk, Fimmvörðuháls and Sólheimajökull.