Snaefellsjokull Glacier, Iceland

The Snaefellsjokull Glacier & volcano ( Iceland) welcome tourists coming from different parts of the world. The massive white summit is just breathtaking that tourists will brave the chilly weather just to take a hike on the icy ground.

Snaefellsjokull National Park is located on the far west side of the Snæfellsness peninsula. The main reason for why this park was established was to to promote the protection of the unique topography and landscape of the area which is home for rare plants and animals. This park also boasts historical relics around its mountains.

It is about a 2 hour drive to Reykjavik – It is one of the most visited parks in Iceland because of its proximity to the country’s capital. The Glacier is also home to the Snaefellsjokull volcano which is a famous volcano in Iceland and dubbed as the jewel of West Iceland. This volcano which is 1,446 meters high and it is truly a tourist magnet of the western Peninsula. This is the setting for Jules Vernes’ (1864) popular book entitled “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (it was the journey’s starting point).

The Snaefellsjokull Glacier is a volcano covered with glacier. This is considered to be the center of The Snæfellsjökull National Park. When you reach the summit in a clear day, you can sometime see the capital city of Reykjavik which is approximately 200 kilometers away.

It was in 1754 when the mountain was first conquered by climbers. Like many other volcanoes in Iceland, this remains to be an active one though the latest eruption happened 1900 years ago. The glacier covered the summit crater to the depth of about 200 meters due to the worsening global warming, the glacier continues to shrink. (2012 was the first time in recorded history that the top of Snaefellsjokull was ice-free)

There are plenty of famous tourist sites to see when you visit the Snæfellsjökull National Park. Visitors can go to the beautiful Djúpalónssandur beach, the Lóndrangar referred to as the two massive lava formations, Sönghellir (the singing cave) and the Rauðfeldargjá known as the hidden waterfall.