Is this really the most dangerous road in Iceland?

G oogle the most dangerous road in Iceland and you´ll get quite a few hits about the mountain road between the town of Vopnafjordur and Jokuldal valley in the east of the country (see map.) But is it really?

The short answer is not really. But the longer answer is it depends. Depends on what time of the year you are traveling.

You see, this particular road is pretty high up by local standards. It reaches a height of 644 meters at the top of the road and it certainly has its fair share of switchback turns as is completely natural in a steep environment.

On the Southside of this mountain pass know locally as Hellisheiði East, or in English as the Eastern Hellisheidi, to differentiate from the more famous Hellisheiði in the west of the country between Reykjavik and the southern part of the island, you´ll get absolutely fabulous views over the famed and beautiful Heradssand black beach as seen in the photo. That is a pitch black beach running for miles and seemingly endless from afar.

In contrast, from the North side you´ll be able to see far away into the Atlantic ocean and might catch a glimpse of the rather nice Vopnafjordur fjord with its tiny village in the distance.

Now, as to the danger level of this route, we must respectfully disagree with all those sites proclaiming this a serious danger. It´s pretty obvious few, if any, of those journalists and bloggers have ever taken the route personally.

Yup, it gets pretty high up and yup, it closes completely down over most winters but if you have learned the basics about how to drive and you are not putting the pedal to the metal you´ll be absolutely fine and not bothered at all.

Just make sure you are passing in summertime or roughly from May to September. If you find yourself here outside of that time of the year you might well get into trouble. Not from the height or a bad road but from snow and ice which sets here pretty quickly in autumn. And yes, you can do the pass easily in any car over summertime.

The only people that need to take care here over summertime are caravan drivers. There is one particularly steep hill on the north side with about 12 degree angle and not all caravans have the power to overcome this particular hill if coming from the North.

Bear in mind this route is pretty remote from the Ring Road most foreigners take around this country of ours. However, if you have the time you should most definitely do it.