F208 Fjallabaksleið Nyrðri

From the Ring Road, Route 26 passes Hekla and the Hrauneyjar power station to the start of F208 near Sigalda. The northern F208 is a graded, often washboarded gravel road around the Þórisvatn reservoirs, with the detour to the Sigöldugljúfur canyon and the Ljótipollur crater on the way, ending at the Landmannalaugar car park on the far side of a shallow ford that most people park before and walk across on the footbridge.

South of Landmannalaugar the character changes completely: the road to Eldgjá and on to Búland crosses river after river, with rocky beds and black sand, and the Eldgjá section alone can take two hours. It is one of the best drives in the country and not a road for a first F-road day.

Northern approach: no crossings up to the car park (the final ford into the camp can be skipped), so a compact 4x4 works and most rentals approve it. Southern section: tier three, dozens of medium fords, which means a high-clearance 4x4 such as a Land Cruiser or Hilux, no campers, and water damage uninsured. F224, the last few kilometres into Landmannalaugar from the north, has one modest ford you can park before.

Water tier 3: Medium to large water crossings. A high-clearance 4x4 — Toyota Land Cruiser, Land Rover Defender, or Toyota Hilux.

The northern approach typically opens in early to mid-June and the southern section later, into late June, when its rivers drop. Both close between late September and mid-October. A late spring moves everything back; see the recorded dates below and the live status above before you commit to a date.

Download the data (CSV) · free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link back.

The northern approach is the standard self-drive day to Landmannalaugar from Hella or Selfoss: Sigöldugljúfur, Ljótipollur, the Brennisteinsalda or Bláhnjúkur hike and the hot spring, back the same way. Plans with a capable car and a full day continue south past Eldgjá to Kirkjubæjarklaustur instead of returning. Several editor-picked plans below do exactly that.