Realizing My Dream - Hiking to The Erupting Volcano on Iceland

Oh, I have waited to make this post. In fact, I have waited several years for this to finally happen. Really all my life I have been wanting to see a volcano eruption with my own eyes, close up. This year it came true. Let's begin from the start when I thought I now have a real opportunity to see it.

2021

The first eruption happened on Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland where people could get quite close if one was willing to hike. Of course, I was. Decided to travel to Iceland for the second time for two weeks and hopefully see the eruption. The only thing I managed to see during this time was an eruption from afar when the sky was lit up with fire colors in the night. I hoped to hike to the site the following day but the storm cancelled these plans. It's not a great idea to take on a longer hike with a storm. We decided to drive away and get on with our travels and after two weeks and a circle around the country hoped to have another chance. Well, we didn't. The eruption ended during these two weeks.

2022

The second eruption happened, almost in the same location on Reykjanes peninsula. Due to lack of free time, I still decided to fly to Iceland in August, only for 3 days and hopefully see the eruption this time. Again... I didn't. This volcanic event only lasted 2 and a half weeks. I missed the eruption by two days. I still hiked to the site and saw a steaming crater and new lava fields. It was awesome but was very bummed to have missed the actual eruption. The scientist believed that its the start of a new volcanic era on this peninsula and regular eruptions might start happening.

2023

About 3 weeks ago, a new eruption began on 9th July. My 2 week vacation from work was just coming up and I had planned to drive to Norway for two weeks. Since the new eruption began, I instantly bought tickets to Iceland for a week in advance and canceled Norway. We planned to stay in Iceland for a week. Should be plenty of time to have opportunities to hike to the eruption site, provided that the event does not end very early. It didn't and we had an experience of a lifetime, the following is the story of how all this went down...

The Hike to the Eruption

_{2021 Lava Field}

The problem is that you can't just hike there any time you want to. The weather is extremely unpredictable in Iceland. When it's the storm or heavy rain then you are in for a really bad time. In Iceland low clouds are common and the hike is in the mountains. You will see nothing with low clouds.

Then there is a matter of gas and smoke during the volcano eruption. If the wind is from a bad direction or too calm then the gas can accumulate in places and on the hiking path. When inhaled enough, it's fatal.

Fortunately, in our case, the weather was really nice and clear in the evening when we arrived in Iceland. Picked up our rental car, checked into our accommodation in a nearby town and straight to the volcano hike we went. The wind was also in another direction and no gas or smoke accumulates on the path we will take.

_{2021 Lava Field}

The new eruption happened even farther away than the last two so it takes a longer hike to reach the site. It was hard. It's 10km one way, has steep sections, and a bad terrain with loose stones and rocky ground. Combine that with a heavy bag one has to carry with water, food and camera equipment. It really takes a toll on the body. Good hiking boots are absolutely essential if you don't want to break your ankles.

The path we took is the same one I did in 2022 that goes past the 2021 and 2022 eruption craters. Here is my girlfriend in the photo and a 2021 eruption cone. You can also see the smoke from the new eruption site we were hiking to.

Here you can see two craters that are both formed in 2021

A bit of more walking and the 2022 eruption crater appears where I hiked last year. Here you can see last year's crater on the right and a path we had to walk on. They had tried to make at least some path with a bulldozer so people who go there can have at least a bit easier time walking. The new volcano gas and smoke are also visible.

The sun was starting to set. The time was something before 23.00 in the evening. Fortunately, it does not get fully dark in Iceland this time of year so it's not a problem but gets dark enough that the lava show is spectacular to see.

You can see how rocky the trail is. Some more people on the path too who were eager to see the eruption.

Fortunately, I have quite heavy-duty hiking boots with very strong soles but my girlfriend was complaining about the painful soles.

The Eruption Site

Finally, we were there! There is another hill named Litli Hrutur which we had to climb in order to get the best view of the erupting crater. It was very steep and had a lot of loose rocks, a hard climb but I didn't care. Even before we were up the hill and before we had seen the crater, we began to see the new lava rivers. It was a mind-blowing sight.

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And there it was! A huge eruption crater spitting lava 50 meters high up into the air. My jaw literally dropped how powerful the sight was. The feeling that I was finally there and after so much trying to see an eruption, I finally do. The feeling is unexplainable.

There were more people who had made their way there. We found ourselves a spot to sit down on the steep slope.

I was unable to even take any photos and videos during the first half an hour. We just sat there and watched the eruption and lava flows unfold before our eyes. There were about 30 people but there was an odd silence among us. I guess it's the same as I had. There are no words to describe the sight and everybody just watching in awe and enjoying the first-row seats to the action. We just listened to lava splattering in silence. Soon I pulled myself together and started taking some photos.

We were hundreds of meters away from the cone itself but the heat was still felt. At the time the cone was about 35 meters high and 70 meters long, growing about 3 meters per day. Lava output was around 10 m3/sec.

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It still erupts today and currently, it doesn't endanger any infrastructure because it's in an uninhabited area of the peninsula. If it were to go on months more then there can be a chance that lava can become a danger to the south coast highway.

You can see a couple of people down next to the lava lake. Those people are a great measurement of the scale of the lava-covered areas.

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Overall it's a great type of volcano that is safe to observe close up because it does not explode or spew ash anywhere. As mentioned before, gas can be only dangerous if you happen to stay in it. Of course, some tourists can also be extremely stupid and make life hard for Icelandic emergency crews. Some climb on the newly formed lava but have no idea that under the thin cooled crust can be a 1600C yellow-hot lava lake. There was even one instance where two people tried to climb under the erupting cone itself. If the cone collapses or lava spews very high then they are toast in seconds. Fortunately, it didn't come to that.

Icelandic rescue teams have said that they won't come to help or rescue anyone that is on the new lava field or near a new eruptive crater. They won't endanger themselves for that and if you happen to get hurt in this area then you will be on your own.

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Here are some more photos of the glowing lava rivers.

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Photographers camping on the hill.

My girlfriend suggested that we go down to the lava river because she is a bit cold from the wind, even with warmth from a volcano.
We hiked down that steep hill and I felt the pain in my knee again. I should have taken more slowly going down. These steep slopes really put a lot of pressure on leg joints.

Being so close to the actual lava was so cool. Listening to the sounds that it makes and watching how it slowly covers new areas and falls down from rocks.

And yes before you ask. It was extremely hot to go closer than 4 meters from the lava, it's still 1500C degrees.
I had to get a photo with lava too. My back really felt the heat.
The place where we stood probably does not exist anymore today. The lava slowly made its way toward us.

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The lava river and new covered land are several kilometers long today. The new lava is 40m deep at places where it has covered a whole valley between mountains.

The time we spent down there the lava moved forward about 2 meters in 45 minutes.

It was just so incredible to sit there. Listen to the sounds, enjoy the volcano heat and watch how the lava and back wall slowly moves towards us and collapses. It's such a unique thing to witness, the real-time new landscape forming.

Here is a great picture that illustrates how the river goes. The lower part is where we sat and up there is a main lava river that flows farther away. It was a small subsurface outlet flow that we were next to. A couple of people down there put the perspective right.

We had spent a good 2 hours in the eruption site and it was time to hike back now. We hoped to come back there again during the next 6 days of our stay but unfortunately, we didn't. My body was so painful the next day and not fit for hiking. After that the officials made some days forbidden to go there due to the bad gas and smoke conditions. If you value your life then you better hear what officials say.

Mount Keilir as seen when we hiked back.

It was such a unique and incredible experience that I really don't know how to summarize it. You have to see it yourself to know it. To say that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience is probably wrong for me because I try to make sure that I will catch another eruption in the future in Iceland too. If it's true that a new era on Reykjanes peninsula, named Reykjanes fires has begun then there should be many more eruptions during my lifetime. I am extremely interested to see how the new era continues and how the current eruption evolves.

Hike back took us about 2.5 hours and we arrived back to our car a bit after 4 in the morning. The hike was definitely hard on my feet and body. My lower back was toast due to the heavy bag and my knee was bad, it's still painful actually but not as much. It's no wonder that Icelandic rescue teams have to bring many people off the trail because they literally cannot do it. Overestimation of one's capabilities is common on this trail and people try to do it without proper gear. Some bring their kids and that tends to be a problem because kids don't have the strength to finish and parents don't have the strength to carry them then they need to be rescued. Broken ankles and legs are not that uncommon too.

The current eruption has lost its strength considerably since I was there and it is believed that the end is not far now. The flow rate is half what it was then but let's see how much longer it lasts.

Very soon I will also upload a short movie of this eruption event and hiking there so you can see the eruption and lava flows in motion. I am also talking on the video but in Estonian, I will write the subtitles too.

I hope you read it till the end and if you have any questions then drop it in the comments, I am happy to answer these!

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