Which mountains are the most beautiful mountains in Iceland, where are they located and what kind of mountains can you find in Iceland?

Iceland is filled with interesting rock sculptures, lava formations, volcanoes and mountains of all shapes and sizes. In the Westfjords you can find high table-top mountains with narrow fjords in between but the mountains by the fjords in the east of the country are more rugged and harsh. 

The mountains in the Westfjords are older (about 10-16 million years old) and have been shaped through thousands of years of carrying heavy glaciers and battling with the natural elements, polishing off the rough edges. Younger mountains that have been formed when two tectonic plates crash into each other are rougher on the edges.

Iceland is situated right on top of two tectonic plates and is also on one of the so-called hot spots on earth, with intense volcanic activity and frequent earthquakes happening.

Volcanoes have many different types of lava, for example, smooth and fast running lava, thick and slowly crawling lava or spitting lava. These different types of lava will cool into different types of mountains, stones and rock formations with different textures, thickness, colours and weight. All in all, Iceland is the geologist’s paradise.

Above and below are pictures of Vestrahorn mountain, in the east of Iceland.

Skógafoss is located near the small village of Skógar, south of the Eyjafjallajökull glacier volcano. There you’ll find the Skógasafn folk museum, an open-air museum with both old wooden houses and turf houses, as well as a regional museum with various artifacts from this area.

A part of the Skógasafn Regional Museum is the Museum of Transportation, which showcases the history and evolution of transportation, communication, and technologies in Iceland. There, you can see how this nation evolved from the age of the working horse to the digital communications of the 21st century.

The Skógasafn museum also includes a café and a museum shop, and in the village of Skógar, you will find both a hotel and a restaurant.

On the eastern side of Skógafoss, you will find one of Iceland’s most famed hiking routes; the Fimmvörðuháls pass. The 22 kilometers (14 miles) trail takes you along Skógá river, between two glaciers, Mýrdalsjökull and Eyjafjallajökull, before ending in the beautiful Þórsmörk valley.

Skógafoss is often visited alongside the waterfall Seljalandsfoss, which is just a little further along the South Coast. Both fall from cliffs of the same height, and while Skógafoss is much more powerful, Seljalandsfoss has a cave behind it, which means it can be fully encircled. It is also next to a much lesser known but still awe-inspiring waterfall, Gljúfrabúi.