Snæfellsjökull National Park
Þjóðgarðurinn Snæfellsjökull
Snæfellsjökull is a 1,446 m glacier-capped stratovolcano at the western tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula, roughly 700,000 years old and last erupted around 200 CE. It is the centerpiece of Snæfellsjökull National Park, established in 2001 and covering about 183 km² of craters, lava fields, caves, and coastline.
Region
Snæfellsnes Peninsula
Coordinates
64.8000° N, 23.7833° W
Important to know
- High danger
- Coastal cliffs, lava fields, caves, glacier terrain, and rapid weather changes create varied hazards across the park.
- Guide required
- A guide is required for glacier summit or glacier-travel objectives; visitor centers, roadside viewpoints, and ordinary marked lowland park stops are self-guided.
Plan the stop
- Allow
- 4 hrs
Accessibility
- Wheelchair · Partial
- The Malarrif and Hellissandur visitor centers have accessible parking, paved paths, and facilities, but the glacier summit and most lava-field terrain within the park are not wheelchair accessible.
- Limited mobility · Partial
- Visitor centers and some coastal viewpoints are manageable, while lava fields, caves, and glacier routes require rough walking.
- Sensory · Partial
- Wind, surf, bright glacier glare, dark cave areas, and exposed weather vary across the park.
- Cognitive · Partial
- The park covers multiple dispersed sites, so visitors need route planning and awareness of which stops are easy versus technical.
Why it matters
The volcano is internationally famous as the fictional entrance to the center of the Earth in Jules Verne's 1864 novel Journey to the Center of the Earth. Its summit ice cap has shrunk markedly with climate change, from about 16 km² in 1946 to roughly 10-11 km² by 2008, and was reported ice-free for the first time in recorded history in August 2012.