Campervanning the Ring Road in Iceland: Where to Start: The Reykjanes Peninsula

In the land of fire and ice...let's start with fire.

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You've landed in Keflavik, at the international airport that services the majority of flights both in an out of Iceland.  Keflavik sits on the edge of the Reykjanes Peninsula, a small jut of land just south of Reykjavik.  The Reykjanes is the beginning of our trip to Iceland, and the place to start.

The expectation of Iceland and it's incredible views are slightly lost on the peninsula.  Being the location of the most recent volcano activity, the peninsula lays out flat for miles around the airport.  

Using your Rick Steve's planning map, (affliate link) you find immediately the peninsula has two major spots you'll want to see:  the Bridge Between Two Continents and Gunnuhver.  Now, there are quite a few more stops along the way on the peninsula.  So make sure you have that map to catch them!

The Bridge Between Two Continents

Essentially, this is one of the most important first stops to make in Iceland.  It is not extremely popular, yet it is the defining geological feature that gives Iceland it's story.  Before you take the journey into her world, you have to know where her story begins.

At the heart of Iceland is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.  This is the meeting point between the Eurasian Tectonic Plate and the North American Tectonic Plate.  Here, two different continents meet in two different ways.  The plates are consistently sliding apart, allowing magma from below to rise and form new land below.  Along the ridge to the north, the plates slide against each other.  These intense land mass movements are what create the active volcano scene in Iceland, as the ridge itself is an opening to the depts of the earth below.

Gunnuhver

Gunnuhver (named for local folklore) is the central focal point of the UNESCO Global Geopark on Reykjanes.  Due to the flowing mantle below, heat warms the waters above, creating the largest mud pool in Iceland.  Gunnuhver will shoot water from below at various times, and steam is found to be consistently rising from the ground. 

While Gunnuhver is not the most impressive geothermal mud we found, it Gunnuhver provides information and insight into how the residents of Iceland are able to use the natural geothermal hot spots as part of their ability to have lived sustainably on the island long before convivences arrived from around the world.

Next stop on the Campervan Tour of Iceland:

The Golden Circle