The Sólheimajökull Glacier
8 July 2019
We were driving the Ring Road from Skógafoss toward our next stop at Vik when we saw the ice caps of a glacier from the road. We eventually came to a small road with a sign saying Sólheimajökull was down that road. After stopping and reviewing the map to make sure we weren’t taking the van illegally down an F-road, we took the small dirt path toward our first ever look at a real glacier!
Glaciers are one of those things I was fascinated by when I was younger, but thought you needed to be someone “special” to see them. Like how I believed how you could only access ancient Greek ruins if you were an archaeologist, I thought you could only go to a glacier if you were a scientist. Yet driving down this incredibly scenic, bumpy road, we were on our way to an ancient ice flow, the Sólheimajökull glacier!
In the parking area there were a few tour companies set up that led people on hikes across the ice. That was an interesting idea, but this was a totally unplanned stop and we didn’t know how much time we would have. It is not a good idea to try to hike the ice without a tour or without being an experienced mountaineer. The glacier can be a dangerous place, especially for those inexperienced. Without the knowledge of the ice sheet, you could step through soft ice or into a snow-covered hole, especially in the summer when some of the ice may have melted a bit. It’s easy to lose your footing in regular climbing, but the ice makes it much more treacherous. While there may not be someone stopping you from trekking across the ice on your own, it is really not a good idea. If you want to hike the glacier, get a guide. As for us, we knew we couldn’t hike on the glacier without their gear and guidance, but considering the time we had we were content to explore the rest of the area on our own.
We crossed the very desert-like landscape full of volcanic sand and small pools of icy water, however the cliffs rising to the side were covered in a brilliant green and contoured in the most amazing shapes. A few points we saw canyons formed by rivers that stretched back beyond view into the mountains, spots just begging us to explore if we had the ability. Despite the rather dark-gray color of the sand, there were bright patches of flowers in the most beautiful yellow and purple, made even more stunning by the contrast against the dark backdrop.
We made our way finally to where the ice sheet began (or ended?) and looked over the magnificent glacier. The ice was covered in dark ash from the last volcanic eruption, when Eyjafjallajökull sent clouds of smoke and ash into the sky and made world news back in 2010. Looking through the dark spots of ash and the crisp white of the ice, you could see the light almost glowing blue of pure glacial ice. The walls of the glacier were jagged, looking like white ash-covered mountains themselves rather than ice.
As we made our way back along the dark sand, we found these boulders just sitting on the ground. They were polished smooth; polished from the glacial ice of course, but they looked so otherworldly. That seems to be a constant theme so far in Iceland, spots that seem like they are more alien than from our world. The landscapes are so strange and so drastically different over such a short distance. It is probably the closest thing I could find to visiting another planet… and it’s not that far of a flight away, cool camper van included!
As we drove back down that dirt road toward Rt 1, we tried to fathom where we just were. A real glacier – a remnant of the Ice Age – and we got to visit! So awesome!