The weather was still pretty gnarly for us on day 5. Luckily the roads and the winds were much more manageable. But it was in the single digits and cold cold cold. We pushed on and drove out to see the glacier.
We stopped to see all of the icebergs at Jökulsárlón – the glacial lagoon. The first thing we saw when we got out into the frozen abyss was a “No Swimming” sign. What kind of crazies are jumping in right now?! Okay, actually, the thought did cross my mind – more as a “I wonder if I could make it out to one of the ice chunks.”
After walking around the bay, and letting a few icicles form below our noses, we jumped back in the van and drove across the road to Diamond Beach! And in my opinion, it was WAY more interesting!
All of the ice chunks that break off of the glacier, then float out to sea and get washed up on this beach. We watched a few MASSIVE pieces of ice come out down the river only to get slammed by the incoming swell. It was quite the process to witness. On one end, the flow of the river was pushing them outward, but they couldn’t make it past the break – so the big chunks just swirled and swirled, until eventually it makes out onto the beach. Then, once in reach, we can stand on it.
There were all kinds of fun little formations of ice.
That was as far East as we drove. The eastern part of the Island had some storm warning for the next few days, so we headed West chasing potentially friendlier weather. We stopped for a snack here at this tiny waterfall. The few days leading up to this, we saw all of these massive waterfalls, right? And I found myself thinking, “well what about all the beautiful little guys that don’t get any attention. So we did our part and gave a lesser-known falls some love.
