Gunnuver sure is one of the unique places in Iceland. Situated in the southernmost part of Reykjanes peninsula. As the title suggests, there are hot springs but also mud pools and steam vents. In fact, the largest mud pool in Iceland is there. Beautiful but also a dangerous area, you should not start walking around there randomly. Fortunately, there is a wooden pathway that takes you quite close to the action.
This place is situated exactly on the mid-Atlantic rift zone and is incredibly active geothermally. Different deposits that blow out of the ground, paint the landscape around the area. When standing there you can hear violent outbursts of steam and water from the nearby vent, really sounds like hell. In the photo below you can see some water spraying. You can also see the largest mud pool there. It's the crater behind the steam vent. Unfortunately, I don't have a shot of the insides, I will definitely not going to stand on the edge there. I regularly saw some stuff flaying a bit in the crater.
Don't ask me why there is a bridge over the fucking main steam vent with water over 100C flying over the bridge. We can name it a bridge of certain death. My guess is that it's an old structure and the vent has expanded there, so it ate the bridge. I also read that there was a farm in that area a long while ago, maybe the bridge of death is a remnant of this time tho it doesn't look that old.
Some more shots of the colorful landscape.
Behind that area looks to be a blue lake. The blue color comes from the high silica content in the water. Behind the lake looks to be a geothermal power plant.
Like in many places in Iceland, there are also folklore stories about that place. Apparently, Gunnuver is also haunted! I'm not going to write this story here, you can look it up if interested.
Overall a really unique and special place to visit. I didn't even see hordes of tourists there. Also, I have never really seen this place gets advertised or anything. I just found it when I searched the area on maps. That's a thing about going to Iceland for the third time, you can really start digging deep into finding places that you wouldn't see otherwise.
If you decide to visit, just don't walk on the bridge of death!
