Iceland Travel GuideLOCAL TRAVEL AGENCY IN ICELAND
My trip
Talk to a local
Iceland Travel GuideLOCAL TRAVEL AGENCY IN ICELAND
My trip
Talk to a local
Grænalón (“Green Lagoon”) is a glacial lake beside the north-western edge of the Skeiðarárjökull glacier, part of Vatnajökull. It was once one of Iceland’s largest ice-dammed lakes, but it has almost completely drained as the glacier thinned. It is remote, has no facilities and is reached only on foot, by 4x4 or by helicopter.
Grænalón sat in a valley next to the north-western edge of Skeiðarárjökull, an outlet glacier of Vatnajökull. The glacier acted as a dam. At its largest the lake was about 6 km long, up to 3 km wide and over 100 metres deep, with an area of around 18 km² in the 20th century.
Unlike most glacial lagoons in Iceland, Grænalón is shrinking, not growing. Skeiðarárjökull has thinned and pulled back, and the ice wall that held the water shrank from 150–200 metres high to a fragment of maybe ten or twenty metres. Water drained out repeatedly in outburst floods, the last recorded in 2011, and today only a small pond remains, slowly filling with sediment.
Anyone visiting should expect a raw landscape of rock, sediment, meltwater and ice, not a lagoon with floating icebergs. The murky brown water is a sign of how much glacial silt it holds. It is a place for people who enjoy remote glacier country and are properly prepared.
The lake lies well inland, far from the coast, in a valley hemmed in by ice on three sides. That setting, and the quiet, are what draw hikers and photographers. Go in full daylight, when the light reaches the ice and the old shorelines on the slopes stand out.
Grænalón is known for its floods. The earliest recorded outburst was in 1201, and a second big one followed in 1785. Between 1935 and 1949 the lake drained every three to four years, sending huge volumes of water down towards Skeiðarársandur.
As Skeiðarárjökull has thinned, at a rate of about five metres a year, the ice dam has weakened. The lake no longer fills the way it once did.
Glacier rivers here are cold, fast and change with the weather and time of day. Never attempt river crossings without local knowledge.
There are no facilities at Grænalón. The nearest services are at Skaftafell, where there is a visitor centre, café and campsite, and in Kirkjubæjarklaustur.
Skaftafell has a campsite and there are hotels and guesthouses in the area, and in Kirkjubæjarklaustur. Book ahead in summer.
A glacial lake beside the north-western edge of Skeiðarárjökull, part of Vatnajökull. It was once large but has almost completely drained.
Only a small pond remains. The old lakebed is mostly sediment and meltwater channels.
It holds a lot of fine glacial silt, so it looks murky brown rather than the blue of some other glacial lagoons.
There are no public roads. It is reached on foot, by modified 4x4 or by helicopter.
Not really. It is remote and demanding. Jökulsárlón and Fjallsárlón are far easier glacier lagoons to visit.
