How to Visit Gunnuhver Geothermal Area in Iceland

Gunnuhver is one of Iceland’s most fascinating geothermal areas, with steaming vents and bubbling mud pools. Here is how to see it.

This summer, we also had time for a short visit to Iceland. We stopped there on our way home from Finland to the United States and spent a few days exploring some of the sights.

I had actually spent a whole month in Iceland before, so the country was already familiar to me. However, that trip was in winter, and it was nice to finally see what Iceland is like during the summer months. We visited in early August, which turned out to be a great time of year weather-wise.

On the evening of our first day, we suddenly had a few extra hours to spare. We wanted to find something interesting to do that wouldn’t take too long and was close to our hotel. So, we decided to take a walk around the Gunnuhver Geothermal Area, which turned out to be a surprisingly interesting and fun place to visit.

The main attractions at Gunnuhver are its hot springs, steaming fumaroles, and bubbling mud pools. The area is home to Iceland’s largest mud pool, among other geothermal features. It is also part of the Reykjanes UNESCO Global Geopark.

Gunnuhver Geothermal Area

The Gunnuhver Geothermal Area is a fairly easy and quick place to visit. We spent about an hour there, looking at the steaming hot springs and walking along the boardwalks. The walking trails start right by the parking lot, and from the same area, you can also access the beautiful Reykjanesviti Lighthouse.

After a short walk, you reach the boardwalks, where you get great views of the hot springs and different mud pools. Depending on the wind direction, steam from the fumaroles can reach all the way across the boardwalks. We had to walk through the steam several times during our visit. Luckily, I happened to be wearing a windproof and waterproof jacket!

One thing that makes Gunnuhver special is that the water circulating in its hot springs is seawater rather than freshwater, as is usually the case with geothermal springs. The mud pool at Gunnuhver is also said to be Iceland’s largest, measuring more than 66 feet (20 meters) across.

A visit to Gunnuhver really lets you experience the power of the Earth with all your senses. You can see many different colors around the springs, the air smells strongly of sulfur, and the bubbling hot pools hiss as they release more steam into the air.

The Gunnuhver Geothermal Area is located in southwestern Iceland, quite close to Keflavík International Airport. The drive from Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, takes around 40-50 minutes, depending on which part of the city you leave from. You can get there by following Route 425.

There is no entrance fee to the Gunnuhver area, and you can visit at any time of the day.

The Saga of Gunnuhver

Like many places in Iceland, the Gunnuhver Geothermal Area also has an interesting local legend, or saga, behind its name. It is believed to be named after Guðrún Önundardóttiri, also known as “Gunna”.

Gunna lived in the area where Keflavík Airport is now located sometime in the 18th century. She rented a house there until she got into an argument with her landlord, Vilhjálmur Jónsson. The disagreement started over unpaid rent.

According to the story, Vilhjálmur took Gunna’s only valuable possession, a cooking pot, as payment for the rent she owed. Gunna was furious and cursed both her landlord and the entire area.

Not long after that, Gunna died and a funeral was arranged for her. However, something strange happened during the funeral procession. The people accompanying the coffin claimed they could hear whispers around them saying, “No need to dig deep. No plans to lie long.” The pallbearers also wondered why the coffin felt so unusually light.

Eventually, people began to suspect to suspect that Gunna might have been a witch and that she could return to haunt the area. They decided to ask for help from a priest named Eirikur. He came up with a plan to trap Gunna by using a ball of yarn, which he rolled toward the hot spring to lure her in.

And so, Gunna is now believed to be trapped inside the hot spring at Gunnuhver, where she angrily hisses at visitors!

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The Gunnuhver Geothermal Area reminded us a lot of Lassen Volcanic National Park, which we have visited back home in California. The whole place, with its boardwalks, bubbling mud pools, and colorful geothermal features, looked very similar, just on a lightly smaller scale.

During our short trip to Iceland, we spent one day in Reykjavík and another exploring Iceland’s famous Golden Circle. The round includes Þingvellir National Park, the Geysir Geothermal Area, and Gullfoss Waterfall. All of these places looked quite different now at the summer time from what I remembered from my previous visit to Iceland in winter.

We visited Iceland as part of the Icelandair Stopover program, which is a convenient way to break up the journey between the United States and Finland, or Europe in general. However, it wasn’t quite as practical for us, since Icelandair doesn’t fly all the way to California, so we ended up having to take one extra flight.

We probably won’t choose this route again, but if you’re flying to a state with direct flights from Iceland, Icelanair could be a good option.

Have you visited Iceland or flown with Icelandair? What do you think?

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