Skaftafell (National Park)

July 1 & 2
We took the bus, along with 75 French tourists, from Vik to Skaftafell National Park. This is not only the largest national park in Iceland, it is considered the largest national park in Europe. That is not much of an accomplishment considering most countries in Europe are roughly the same size as our backyard, but what was amazing was that in Skaftafell there is the largest glacier outside of the Arctic regions. Our camp site sat near the foot of the glacier and the mountains shot straight up all around us. Outside of the fact it rained on us most of the time, our stay was great. While there we hiked right up to the glacier and to the Svartifoss waterfall, and hiked up the valley traversing the glacier the entire way.
After we left the park we headed to another tiny town called Hofn. Along the way we passed a place called Jokulsarlon lagoon where chunks of the glacier have broken free and are floating toward the ocean, it took us by surprise and was a great site along the way. We pulled into Hofn about 5 pm where there was a lobster festival going on. We ate lobster, drank beer and celebrated with the locals; not a bad way to spend our 4th wedding anniversary.