Glacier Walk in Skaftafell National Park

After our shockingly late wake-up and beautiful visit to the town of Vik, it was time for our glacier walk! I had no idea what to expect and just knew that it would take anwhere from 2 to 3 hours to do.

The glacier we walked on, Skeidararjokull, is located in Skaftafell National Park, which is part of the larger Vatnajokull National Park. Skaftafell was named a national park on August 23, 1968. The park has amazing views of Iceland's highest mountains and the area has the biggest valley glacier. When Skaftafell was first established as a national park, it was 500 square km. In 2004, it was extended to 4800 square km!



On June 7, 2008, the entire Vatnajokull ice cap became a national park in Iceland. Discussions about making the ice cap a park had been going on for some time and it finally became a reality. Skaftafell National Park is now apart of Vatnajokull National Park which takes up 13% of Iceland and is that largest national park in Europe.



Our walk began with a lesson on how to put on crampons. I had never heard of these things but they are to fit around your shoe and tied on tightly to help walk on top of the glacier. We had to be taught how to walk in them as well so we didn't fall or slip. When you walk up a hill, you have to walk hard and penguin like, making you look silly. And going down, you point your toes straight down. Easy peasy.



The guide took us all up and down and around this beautiful glacier, showing us all of the different views. There were small and large crevices in the glacier due to the melting of the glacier and the need for the water to find a way out. Some of the crevices were quite large and nerve-wracking to walk close to.



Glaciers are formed by snow build up over an extremely long period of time. Snow falls one year and doesn't melt all the way and then the next year the same thing happens and so on. After so many years of that happening, a glacier is born. It is natural for them to begin receeding, especially now but they are receeding very quickly, which causes concern.



We came to a small flow of water in the glacier and the guide informed us that all of the water in Iceland is some of the purest water in the world to drink. I couldn't resist asking if I could have a small sip from the water flow and I'm so glad I asked! The water was ice cold (of course!) and so delicious. If you're not a water drinker, it probably won't make a difference to you but I drink water all of the time and had never tasted anything so good. But because the ice traps in all of the minerals and only releases the water, you could not survive off of glacier water. It lacks nutrients and minerals like all other water does.



The darker colored ice we passed that looked like dirt was full and covered in ash from past eruptions. Also, the mounds of ash we found were from holes in the glacier. The glacier used to be about 30 to 40 meters higher than it used to be and when water and sediment needed to find a way out, it would find holes in the glacier. The sediment would dump in the hole and the water would keep flowing, creating these huge mounds of ash that solidified due to the freezing conditions.



In 1996, a huge eruption occured in Vatnajokull. About 15 million cubic meters of iceburg broke off of the glacier and was carried away by a flood that occured three weeks after the eruption. That's Iceland's main concern with an eruption. Not the lava, but the floods that occur because of the eruption. A lot of those glaciers sit on active volcanoes, so it is a constant concern for the people in that area and careful monitoring is done to watch seismic activity.



The hike around the glacier was tiring but very rewarding. We got to see many different geological features of the glaciers and learn how they're formed, what happens when they melt and the effects is has on communities. We also got to see where some scenes of Game of Thrones was filmed for scenes from outside of the wall (whatever that means. Fans, I'm assuming you do). We learned a lot, had tons of fun and was plenty exhausted by the end of it!