Grábrók crater

From the car park beside the Ring Road, climb the wooden stairs and boardwalks up the east side of Grábrók to the rim. Walk once round the crater on the rim path: up short stairs to the north rim, then west and south, looking down into the grassy bowl. Drop back to the top of the stairs and go down the same way. Leave alone the path that heads north-west from the stairs towards Grábrókarfell.

It is 1.2 km round with 77 m of ascent; allow about half an hour. The grade is Easy: several hundred steps, with a railing in places.

Grábrók is the largest of three craters on a short fissure; its lava spread over the floor of Norðurárdalur and dammed the lake Hreðavatn, which you see from the rim. All three craters are a protected natural monument and walkers may use only the marked paths. The old path up Grábrókarfell has been closed and raked over, and Litla-Grábrók was mostly quarried away before it was protected. The top is exposed and windy, and the steps get icy in winter.

The car park is a rest area by the Ring Road, about 1.5 km north of Bifröst; we found no fee. Strætó route 57, between Reykjavík and Akureyri, stops at Bifröst once a day each way, and a marked path links the village with the crater.

Route drawn by Global Adventurer along OpenStreetMap paths (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with figures worked out from it. Check the forecast and the ground on the day: paths change.