Iceland volcano
Grímsvötn
You can see 40 km from here, looking south-east.
Calculating the panorama…
Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.
The view
Up to 40 km away.
Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.
Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).
- 40 kmFarthest ridgelooking south-east
- 98%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 2Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 1,528 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 2 peaks you can name from here
From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.
From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.
The sun
The best sunsets are from November to February.
When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.
- Jansouth-west32 min before the sea-level sunset21%
- Febsouth-west18 min before the sea-level sunset20%
- Marwest14 min before the sea-level sunset20%
- Aprwest20 min before the sea-level sunset20%
- Maynorth-west28 min before the sea-level sunset20%
- Junnorth-westsets on an open horizon18%
- Julnorth-westsets on an open horizon15%
- Augnorth-west22 min before the sea-level sunset16%
- Sepwest16 min before the sea-level sunset16%
- Octsouth-west18 min before the sea-level sunset20%
- Novsouth-west24 min before the sea-level sunset22%
- Decsouth50 min before the sea-level sunset21%
- Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
- Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
- %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).
The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.
The place
Grímsvötn.
Volcano in Iceland
Grímsvötn is a volcano in Iceland, 1,528 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 40 km away, looking south-east.
2 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Grímsvötn (1,725 m), 2 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 98% of the circle.
The skies are clearest from November to February.
Get there and stay
- Grímsfjallplace to stay · 3.4 km · 1 within 10 km
- Hornafjörður Airport (HFN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 102 km in a straight lineCar hire at HFN airport (Höfn)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The viewpoint and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 1named peaks within 5 kmSvíahnúkur eystri
- 1places to stay within 10 kmGrímsfjall
- other viewpoints within 5 km
- cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
- marked trails within 3 km
- shelters and huts within 5 km
- car parks within 3 km
- visitor centres within 5 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- campsites within 10 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
What you see from Grímsvötn, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Peakyas5 mountains within 25 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The view, as people saw it.
Other viewpoints nearby.
Grímsvötn
Iceland
- 46Viewyas Score
- 40 kmFarthest ridge
- 2Peaks in view
- 1,528 mAltitude
Hvannadalshnúkur
Iceland · 55 km
- 84Viewyas Score
- 207 kmFarthest ridge
- 41Peaks in view
- 2,076 mAltitude
Öræfajökull
Iceland · 55 km
- 84Viewyas Score
- 206 kmFarthest ridge
- 40Peaks in view
- 2,026 mAltitude
Bárðarbunga
Iceland · 26 km
- 63Viewyas Score
- 95 kmFarthest ridge
- 10Peaks in view
- 1,966 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q182913) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sun | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms |
| Peaks in view | Peakyas (Wikidata, CC0) |
| Panorama and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Islandyas, Darkskyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.
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islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit 
caves
Every cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Visit 
dark skies
Where the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Visit 
viewpoints
Every viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.You are here
birdwatching
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forests
Every forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.Visit