Lake Kleifarvatn - A Beautiful Gem on Reykjanes Peninsula

Kleifarvatn lake

In the dim morning hours of winter, the sun sluggishly rises above the horizon of Iceland, Lake Kleifarvatn looks completely stunning. The area is a popular hub for locals to go hiking. Mt. Sveifluhals is nearby, and from its top, Lake Kleifarvatn is in an undisturbed view afar.

Kleifarvatn | Reykjanes Peninsula | Iceland [Photo credit: Yanshu Li, Dec 2014]

Lake Kleifarvatn looks isolated in the middle of a vast lava field surrounded by snow-covered mountains and hilly areas. The serene look makes one wonder why something so extraordinary stands, and the most unusual thing about that is there are no visible rivers running into the lake, which contributes to its extraterrestrial look.

Kleifarvatn | Reykjanes Peninsula | Iceland [Photo credit: Yanshu Li, Dec 2014]

The lake’s water is actually flowing in and out through the porous underground lava fields, making the mysterious but constant hidden streams to the largest lake on the Reykjanes Peninsula and one of the deepest lakes in Iceland. Kleifarvatn lake is 97 meters (318 feet) deep and is also a diving site. Divers can see bubbling water and moving stones at its bottom since it sits right on a geothermal area fuelled by the fissure zone of the mid-Atlantic ridge.

In 2000, an earthquake happened in Iceland resulting in diminishing of the lake by visible surface drainage. The draining lake lost about 20% of its surface area. Although the water level has recovered a bit after that, Kleifarvatn is not the same as it’s once before, a large role played to alter the water level is the lake’s groundwater.

It’s safe to say that underneath Kleifarvatn’s tranquil cerulean water, there are constant activities occurring, shaping and forming new features in the submerged world that’s not so obvious. There is even hot water coming from the underground hot springs seeping into the southern part of the lake.

Seltun / krysuvik geothermal area

These two photos were taken nearly on the same spot on Mt. Sveifluhals almost four years apart. Mt. Sveifluhals is very close to Kleifarvatn lake with a geothermal field at its foot that’s named Séltun/Krysuvik. Krysuvik was once Iceland’s largest estate farm and now there are Icelandic horses grazing on the pasture next to the lake.

Icelandic Horses Grazing on the Grassland near Kleifarvatn Lake. [Photo credit: Yanshu Li, July 2018]

Séltun is also at the beginning of the hiking trail leading up to the mountain.  The sulphuricly smelled geothermal hotspot is attracting many visitors to stop and watch the scalded land with places boiling in the forms of steaming hot springs and bubbling hot mud pools, adorning this area with a wild tone that’s the essence of the Icelandic volcano-resulted landscapes.

ACTIVITIES IN THIS AREA

Hiking on Mt. Sveifluhals is a nice weekend exercise with a 2-3 hour hike up and down; from Reykjavik it only takes about 35 minutes to drive. It’s also close to Keflavik International Airport. On the way from the airport to this place, a relaxing soak in the Blue Lagoon’s milky water sounds like a perfect day tour plan. On a clear winter day, the display of Northern Lights definitely adds to the excitements of visiting lake Kleifarvatn and its vicinity.

Hiking on Mt. Sveifluhals [Photo credit: Yanshu Li, Dec 2014]

Find it’s location on the map of Reykjanes Peninsula.

Lake Kleifarvatn, Seltún & Mt. Sveifluhals

Perfect Weekend Spot From Reykjavik Area