Westfjords loop: paved against gravel, leg by leg
Vegagerðin's distance tool splits each road into paved and gravel. Over the six-day ledger: 99 km of gravel in 1,012, mostly the Látrabjarg road, and a 204 km fuel gap.
Ninety-nine kilometres of the loop are gravel, about one in ten, and 68 of them are the road to Látrabjarg and back. At 50 km/h that is two hours of the week on loose surface; the other 913 km are paved. The figures come from the road authority, not from a map read by eye: Vegagerðin's distance tool (vegagerdin.is, "Vegalengdir", read 1 November 2026) returns, for any two of its 227 places, the route, its length, the kilometres with bundið slitlag (bound surface) and the remainder as möl (gravel), broken down by road number. The six-day ledger at /journeys/iceland-westfjords-loop-6-days was put through it leg by leg.
The table
| Day | Leg (ledger) | Vegagerðin km | paved | gravel | where the gravel is |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reykjavík – Stykkishólmur | 172 | 172 | 0 | — |
| 1 | Brjánslækur – Patreksfjörður (Route 62, Kleifaheiði) | 55 | 55 | 0 | — |
| 2 | Patreksfjörður – Bjargtangar and back | 118 | 50 | 68 | Route 612, 46 km each way, 34 of them gravel |
| 3 | Patreksfjörður – Ísafjörður via Bíldudalur and Dynjandisheiði | 144 | 113 | 31 | Route 60 over Dynjandisheiði (and Route 63 in part) |
| 4 | Ísafjörður – Bolungarvík – Súðavík – Ísafjörður | 66 | 66 | 0 | — |
| 5 | Ísafjörður – Hólmavík (Route 61, Djúp) | 224 | 224 | 0 | — |
| 6 | Hólmavík – Reykjavík via Þröskuldar and Brattabrekka | 233 | 233 | 0 | — |
| Total | 1,012 | 913 | 99 |
The ledger's rows are 230, 120, 150, 60, 225 and 235 km, 1,020 in all; the authority's figures land within 6 km of each on every row, which is the margin between a town centre and a junction. Gravel hours at the 50 km/h the ledger assumes for loose surface: 99 ÷ 50 = 1 h 59 min. Paved hours at 80 km/h: 913 ÷ 80 = 11 h 25 min. Add the Baldur crossing at 2 h 10 min and the week is 15 h 34 min of moving, against the ledger's 14.5 hours of driving plus the ferry. Vegagerðin's own timing, which runs faster than 80 km/h on open road, adds the legs to 11 h 44 min.
What the tool changes in the ledger
Two things, and they will go into the next re-check of the journey page.
Day 3 has a choice the ledger does not state. Via Bíldudalur on Route 63 and Dynjandisheiði it is 144 km with 31 km of gravel; via Route 62 over Kleifaheiði and Helluskarð to the same Dynjandisheiði it is 148 km with 8 km of gravel. The Bíldudalur road is the one the ledger describes and the one that passes Dynjandi by the shorter approach (Patreksfjörður to Dynjandi 86 km, 24 gravel; Dynjandi to Ísafjörður 59 km, 8 gravel, through the Dýrafjarðargöng tunnel). The paved alternative costs four kilometres and saves 23 of gravel. Either way the gravel is Dynjandisheiði, whose third and final rebuild phase Vegagerðin's notice of 15 September 2025 put at an estimated completion of end-September 2026, so this row is the one most likely to have changed by the time you drive it.
Day 6 has a note that does not match its number. The ledger says 235 km "down Strandir on Routes 61 and 68 to Route 1 at Hrútafjörður, then Holtavörðuheiði". The tool's route by Hrútafjörður and Holtavörðuheiði is 273 km with 30 km of gravel over Ennisháls on Route 68. The 233 km that matches the ledger's figure is the other road: Route 61 over Þröskuldar to Route 60, south through Svínadalur and over Brattabrekka to Route 1 about 27 km north of Borgarnes, all paved. The number is right and the note is wrong; the note will be corrected. Staðarskáli, the fuel stop the note names, is on the longer road.
Fuel spacing
The operators' own station lists could not be read on 1 November 2026: n1.is returned 403 and orkan.is loads its stations in a script with no page behind it. Olís lists ÓB at Ísafjörður, Bolungarvík and Hólmavík. The regional list on bensinverd.is for Vestfirðir, which the operators feed, named stations that day at Ísafjörður (Orkan, ÓB, N1), Bolungarvík (Orkan, ÓB), Súðavík (Orkan), Flateyri, Þingeyri, Tálknafjörður, Patreksfjörður, Reykhólar, Bjarkalundur, Flókalundur, Drangsnes and Norðurfjörður (all N1), Bíldudalur (Orkan) and Hólmavík (ÓB, N1). Distances between them from the same Vegagerðin tool:
- Brjánslækur to Flókalundur 6 km, then nothing until Patreksfjörður, 55 km.
- Patreksfjörður to Bjargtangar and back, 118 km with no station: fill before leaving.
- Patreksfjörður to Bíldudalur 30 km; Bíldudalur to Þingeyri over Dynjandisheiði 85 km (31 gravel), the longest stretch of the mountain legs; Þingeyri to Ísafjörður 49 km.
- Súðavík to Hólmavík on Route 61 is 204 km with no station, the longest gap of the week; from Ísafjörður it is 224 km.
- Hólmavík to Búðardalur 80 km (ÓB and N1 at Búðardalur), Búðardalur to Borgarnes 79 km.
A car at 7.5 l/100 km uses 17 litres on the Djúp leg and a camper at 12 l/100 km uses 27; neither needs more than half a tank, but the fjord headwinds are not in the formula and the pumps at Ísafjörður are the last certain ones.
Sources
- Vegagerðin, distance tool "Vegalengdir" (route length, bundið slitlag and möl per road, timing), read 1 November 2026: https://www.vegagerdin.is/samgongukerfid/vegakerfid/vegir/vegalengdir
- Vegagerðin, construction progressing well at Dynjandisheiði, 15 September 2025: https://www.vegagerdin.is/en/about-us/operation/news/construction-progressing-well-at-dynjandisheidi
- Ferjuleiðir, Baldur (crossing about 2 h 10 min): https://www.ferja.is/en/our-ferries/baldur
- bensinverd.is, Vestfirðir and Vesturland station lists, 1 November 2026: https://bensinverd.is/
- Olís, station list (ÓB at Ísafjörður, Bolungarvík, Hólmavík): https://www.olis.is/solustadir
- The six-day Westfjords ledger on this site, checked 1 November 2026: /journeys/iceland-westfjords-loop-6-days
The ledgers this post refers to
- Iceland Westfjords loop in 6 days
Reykjavík to Stykkishólmur, the Baldur ferry to Brjánslækur, Látrabjarg, Dynjandi, Ísafjörður and home by Hólmavík: about 1,020 km, 14.5 hours and one crossing.
6 days · Iceland1,020 km · 14 h 35 driving · 2 h 10 ferryChecked 1 Nov 2026