Skaftafell Glacier

Skaftafellsjökull is a broad tongue of ice from Vatnajökull, Europe's largest ice cap, in a sheltered corner of the national park in southeast Iceland. A short, marked trail crosses flat outwash sand from the visitor centre to a lagoon at the glacier's snout, where you stand beside a wall of ice streaked grey and black with old ash. Markers show how far the ice has pulled back over the decades. It is one of Iceland's most accessible glaciers and the start of guided walks onto the ice.