Skaftafell National Park
Skaftafell National Park
Skaftafell National Park is an oasis wedged between sand and glacier. Its unique natural beauty is a result of favourable weather conditions and the interplay of fire and ice.
In 2004 Skaftafell National Park was enlarged and extends now to about two thirds of the Vatnajokull glacier. The National Park consists of three very different areas: Skaftafell and Skeiðarársandur (volcano and outwash plain, former Skaftafell National Park) , Lakagígar (crater area on a volcanic fissure, former National Monument Laki), and the glacial cap itself with a multitude of glaciers.
The Environment and Food Agency published a brochure describing the changes.
Beneath the Vatnajökull ice cap the hot energy of one of the world's most extensive geothermal sites clashes with the cold power of Europe's largest glacier.
The history of fire and ice in the region and the way in which the powerful forces of nature have struggled to form the National Park is told in the Skaftafellsstofa Visitor Centre along with the story of the culture which has thrived in the shadow of the glacier and the lives of people surviving in an area ruled by fire and flood.
The Nature conservation division of the Environment and Food Agency publishes information brochures in English, German and French about Skaftafell
The eminent glaciologist, Professor Hans Wilhelmsson Ahlmann, when asked about the area's natural beauty, described it as follows:
'It is a difficult question to answear, for the landscape was so different from anything I have seen in other countries, or even elsewhere in Iceland. I should imagine that no place on earth can show anything to correspond with it, and there was nothing that one has learnt to consider beautiful or ugly with which it could have been compared. It was quite unique, offering no single point of contact with any of the beauty-values that civilization has taught us'.
Address
Skaftafell National Park
785 Fagurholsmyri, Iceland
Information
Information Center +354 478 1627
Information Center - FAX +354 478 1627
National Park Manager +354 478 1946
Email - National Park Manager
Seasonal Rangers (1.6 - 15.9) skaftafell@ust.is
