A heavy, grey ceiling welcomed us to Djupivogur this morning, our jumping off point for a full day in the field. With over 90 miles of Icelandic countryside before us and the edge of the Vatnajökull icecap, we had some time for the anticipation to build. Driving through lush green fields peppered with Icelandic ponies, past slate grey rivers discharging their heavy burdens into the sea and towards the emerging mountains to the south, the skies continued to improve and instill confidence that our trip’s weather luck had not run out.  

Sure enough, as we turned onto the winding dirt road leading up to Skálafellsjokull (a tributary of the mighty Vatnajökull) we slowly emerged out of the shroud and were greeted with blue skies and distant mountains floating above the whiteness below. A fleet of snowmobiles and trucks awaited us at the top of the road for an outing on to the glacier. Motoring over flat, unassuming terrain it is hard to comprehend the pressures at work beneath one’s feet as the ice, despite its overall retreat, continues to grind forward, continually adding rocks and sediment to the milky grey waters below.  

From the Skálafell Glacier we continued south along the coast until reaching one of Iceland’s most iconic natural features. Jökulsárlón is a 10-mile-square bay that formed over the past 100 years. Before that point the ice tongue feeding this lagoon nearly reached the ocean but has since pulled back five miles and consistently produces large, beautiful icebergs into its own meltwater. Connected to the ocean by Iceland’s shortest river, the glacier lagoon is tidally influenced, spitting ice into the sea during the outgoing tides and sucking what it can back in during the rising tide. This creates a very dynamic crossroads between ice, and water, animals and food and, as a result, tourism. Thousands of people venture to the lagoon each year to putter through the iceberg-studded waters for a chance to taste and feel Iceland’s living legacy—it’s crystalline ice formations—something we were more than happy to partake in ourselves today.