While driving through the Hekla area we stopped at the Visitor Center Sagnagardur. It was a great stop with very informative detail on the Hekla area

As a first-time visitor to Iceland, I was really interested to find out about soil erosion issues here. We checked for opening hours in brochures and online and drove for about an hour to visit this and the Saga Centre nearby. Both were closed when they were supposed to be open! A real blow. The day was saved by the Lava Centre which we discovered completely by accident and which is well worth a couple of hours visit. The Sagnagardur Centre is quite a way off the main "ring" road along an unsealed road. There is even an information board about soil erosion near the junction - it could easily have had info about the Centre and an "open" or "closed" alert on it. When we arrived in our 2 wheel drive hire car we found our wheels spinning rather alarmingly in a deep bed of black volcanic gravel, passing itself off innocently as a parking area. Luckily, after some anxious moments, we got on to a firmer part of the forecourt. There was a beautiful building in front of the centre - some kind of reconstruction of a grain store - lovingly built from shaped lava blocks for a base with a timber and turf roof. Tantalising. Locked.