Skaftafell national park

A sheltered landscape at the edge of the sandur

The contrast between Skaftafell and Skeiðarársandur is immediate. In front of the mountains lies an exposed plain built by glacial rivers and repeated jökulhlaups, while the slopes above support woodland and a much richer cover of vegetation. Shelter, moisture and developed soils have allowed plants to establish here more successfully than on the repeatedly disturbed sandur below.

The result is a landscape that becomes more varied with every change in elevation. Lower paths pass through birch and low woodland; streams descend from the slopes; open sections reveal glacier tongues and mountains; and higher viewpoints connect the green foreground with ice and the wide southern plain. Skaftafell is sometimes compared with an Alpine landscape because of the steep mountains and glaciers surrounding it. The comparison is not a geographical description, but it conveys something of the concentration of high relief, ice and sheltered valleys found here.

Öræfajökull rises above this whole setting. It is an ice-covered active volcano, and Hvannadalshnjúkur, Iceland’s highest summit, stands on the rim of its caldera. The volcano’s full geological and historical story belongs to its own destination page, but its scale is fundamental to Skaftafell. Even when cloud hides the upper mountain, the slopes, glaciers and drainage below remain products of the massif overhead.

A landscape shaped by settlement as well as ice

Skaftafell was lived in and farmed long before it became protected. The sheltered slopes offered vegetation and usable land, but settlement existed beside glaciers, shifting rivers and a sandur repeatedly altered by floods. Routes and fields could not be treated as permanent, and the history of the farms is inseparable from the changing physical landscape around them.

Sel provides the clearest surviving connection with that period. The turf farm was built in the early twentieth century and remained in use until farming there ended in the 1940s. Reaching it on foot gives the buildings their proper context: they sit within the same green slopes, mountain weather and glacial surroundings that shaped everyday life in Skaftafell. Sel is therefore more than an addition to the Svartifoss walk. It explains that this was once a working landscape rather than an area created for visitors.

Isolation also defined the wider district. The glacial rivers crossing Skeiðarársandur were major obstacles, and reliable road access across the sandur belongs to comparatively recent history. The creation of Skaftafell National Park in 1967 marked another change in the relationship between people and place. Farming had largely disappeared, while conservation, walking and public access became central to how the area was managed. Its incorporation into Vatnajökull National Park in 2008 placed that local history within a much larger protected landscape without erasing the older Skaftafell identity.

Svartifoss, Sel and a walk that should continue

Svartifoss is the best-known short objective from the Skaftafell visitor area. The waterfall descends in front of a wall of dark basalt columns whose strong vertical structure distinguishes it from the broader glacial scenery nearby. Water flow changes the balance of the scene: at times the fall becomes the dominant subject, while at lower flow the geometry, broken columns and rock beneath it become more prominent.

For many visitors the waterfall becomes the end of the walk, but Skaftafell begins to make more sense when the route continues. Sel introduces the settlement history, while paths across the higher slopes repeatedly open and close views towards mountains, glaciers and sandur. The value lies in moving between these different environments rather than returning immediately after one recognised landmark.

The marked trail network allows walks of very different lengths to be combined from the main visitor area. A few hours may be enough for Svartifoss and one nearby extension, but it remains only a partial introduction. A full day gives time to walk without reducing the area to a sequence of hurried stops, and several days can be justified for those intending to use Skaftafell as a base for longer routes.

Sjónarnípa and the scale of the glacial landscape

Sjónarnípa is one of the viewpoints that explains the wider geography of Skaftafell. From higher ground, Skaftafellsjökull can be seen descending towards its forefield while the mountains and Skeiðarársandur establish the much larger setting around it. The glacier no longer appears as an isolated tongue of ice; its relationship with valley, moraine and outwash plain becomes legible within one view.

This elevated perspective complements the lower walk towards Skaftafellsjökull. The glacier trail from the visitor area approaches the terminus and lagoon, whereas Sjónarnípa shows how the glacier occupies the landscape as a whole. Skaftafellsjökull has its own destination page because its retreat, forefield and visitor experience deserve fuller treatment. At Skaftafell, the important point is how the glacier belongs to a network of paths and viewpoints rather than standing apart from them.

Svínafellsjökull and Falljökull are also part of the wider Öræfi glacier landscape, but they are not reached on foot from the Skaftafell visitor centre. Each uses a separate access point and has a different character and safety context. Keeping those distinctions clear helps visitors understand Skaftafell as a walking hub without turning every nearby glacier into an extension of the same site.

Giving Skaftafell the time it requires

Skaftafell is easy to enter but difficult to understand quickly. The main visitor area has parking, a visitor centre, a campsite and access to maintained trails, which makes the landscape more approachable than many mountain and glacial regions in Iceland. That convenience can also encourage an overly short visit centred only on the nearest famous destination.

The area rewards a different pace. Its character emerges through transitions: shade gives way to an open slope, vegetation recedes before a glacier view, and a historical farm changes the meaning of what first appeared to be untouched nature. These relationships cannot be experienced from the parking area, and they become clearer as the length of the walk increases.

Conditions still determine what is sensible. Weather can hide the mountains, make exposed higher sections less inviting or change the time needed on a route. Visitors should choose a marked walk suited to the day, check current information at the visitor centre and allow enough margin to continue beyond the first objective. Skaftafell does not require a long expedition to be worthwhile, but it does require more than a brief roadside stop.

• • Skaftafell became a national park in 1967 and has formed part of Vatnajökull National Park since 2008.
  • Skaftafell lies beneath Öræfajökull, the ice-covered volcano whose caldera rim includes Hvannadalshnjúkur, Iceland’s highest summit.
  • Svartifoss is framed by dark basalt columns and is reached on the marked trail system from the main visitor area.
  • Sel preserves an important part of Skaftafell’s farming history.
  • Sjónarnípa gives an elevated view over Skaftafellsjökull and the surrounding glacial landscape.
  • Skaftafellsjökull is approached from Skaftafell, while Svínafellsjökull and Falljökull have separate access points.