Kerid Crater

At Kerid you can look into the crater and also walk down into it. One wall slopes gently and is blanketed with deep moss, and built steps run down it to the lake at the bottom. The other walls are steep basalt and scoria, and the rock here is red rather than the black lava common elsewhere in Iceland. The lake is 6 to 14 metres deep, depending on the groundwater, and minerals in the soil give the water an aquamarine colour. Red rock, blue water and green moss sit in one frame, and that is the reason people photograph it. The bowl measures roughly 270 by 170 metres, so the whole of it stays in view from any point on the rim.

• Two walks, not one: the loop around the rim and the steps down to the water are separate routes, and they show the crater differently.
• Rim loop: 15 to 20 minutes on a made-up path, with the crater in view the whole way.
• Toilets: portable cabins near the entrance, free to use.
• Food: a snack stand by the entrance and nothing else on site, so bring what you need.

Kerid stands on the Golden Circle route in the Grímsnes area of South Iceland. There is no bus stop within 5 kilometres, so people arrive by car or on a coach tour. The car park is about 90 metres from the crater, and the walk from it to the rim is flat. Reaching the water means taking the steps down the one gently sloping wall, then climbing the same 55 metres back.

Best: low sun, when the red of the walls stands out against the moss, and any time the car park is free of coaches.

Avoid: arriving at the same moment as a tour group.

The crater is about 270 metres across, so a single coach group fills the rim path and the steps at once. Visitor traffic comes in waves rather than steadily, and the site is quiet again once the buses move on. Cloud and fog do not spoil the stop.