Jökulsárlón is almost at the other end of Iceland when you travel from Reykjavík. Situated at the edge of the Vatnajökull National Park on the lower east side of Iceland, it is an amazing lagoon full of powder blue glacial ice melting slowly as the lagoon gets deeper and deeper with the melt off. Jökulsárlón has also been a setting for four Hollywood movies: A View to a Kill, Die Another Day, Tomb Raider and Batman Begins, as well as the "reality TV" series Amazing Race if that is any indication how pretty this site is. Well worth the drive if you have the time.
My travel companions and I rented a car with this as our final destination and what a destination it was! The lagoon was absolutely beautiful and I had a fun time scampering around in the cold snapping photos of the glaciers (which I had never seen before outside of pictures). We were also quite privileged to see seals in the lagoon playing with someone’s pet dogs that happened to be there that day. It was incredibly fun watching the interaction between the sleek black heads of the seals and the excited antics of the two dogs running around as they considered jumping into the freezing waters before the seals popped back down and resurfaced further away.
We could only manage to be outside for so long before the snow and wind drove us into the teeny tiny souvenir shop beside the lagoon where hot coffees and chocolates were had by all. Refills of coffee and then back into our car to turn around and drive the 8 hours back to Reykjavík surrounded by vast areas of snow-peaked mountains and snow-filled fields. The drive was definitely long but very serene and I felt almost meditative on the journey back to the big city.
Out of all my journeying around Iceland I think this may have been my favorite moment and I will remember this place fondly for the rest of my life. Getting to Jökulsárlón is not particularly easy but it is well worth it for all that.
Happy glacier hunting!
