Category: Outdoors

Iceland – Diamond Beach

Massive glaciers spill ice into a tidal lagoon – ice that washes ashore on a black-sand beach. Spectacular!


Part of a series of posts about my travel in Iceland, including visits to eleven waterfalls.

Although the trigger for this visit to Iceland was to board the National Geographic Endurance for an expedition cruise to southern Greenland, photography was the focus of my extended stay in Iceland.  This post highlights photos from my first stop in Iceland: Jökulsárlón (aka Glacier Lagoon) and its adjacent Diamond Beach.   While I’m at it, Fjallsárlón lagoon is just down the road and offers equally enthralling scene of an adjacent glacier calving bergs and berglets into a tidal lagoon.  Read on to see photos!

diagram of Jökulsárlón and how its bergs flow out to sea and onto Diamond Beach
Sign with diagram of Jökulsárlón (aka Glacier Lagoon) and its adjacent Diamond Beach, Iceland.
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Iceland – Fjaörárgljufur

A spectacular gorge with a pretty waterfall at its head.

Part of a series of posts about my travel in Iceland, including visits to eleven waterfalls.

Although Fjaörárgljufur ravine includes several beautiful cascades, it is best known for its deep and spectacular gorge.  When I visited, on the afternoon of my first day, it was teeming with other visitors who hiked the trail on the high terrain for its various views across and down into the gorge.  The trail ends at a precarious viewing platform overlooking Mögárfoss, a tall waterfall at the head of the ravine. Read on…

Mögárfoss waterfall in Fjaörárgljufur gorge, southern Iceland.
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Greenland – hiking

We took several hikes in the Greenland wilderness.

[part of a series of posts beginning here]

One might imagine becoming stir crazy during ten days aboard ship.   Fortunately, the expedition team offered many opportunities to go ashore!  Nearly every day they would offer short, medium, and long walks.  Some were billed as a ‘photo walk,’ accompanied by the ship’s photo experts; others were focused on interpretation of the ecology or history; still others were pointedly called a ‘strenuous hike’ for which exercise was the goal and there would be no time to stop for photos or natural-history lessons.  We were fortunate with good weather – sometimes fantastic weather – so I had the opportunity to hike at Dronning Marie Dal (in Skjoldungensund), at the outlet of the Sermeq glacier (at the head of Tasermiut fjord), around the Hvalsey historic site, around the village of Qassiarsuk, and in the tundra above Neria fjord.   The scenery was dramatic, and varied tremendously from place to place. Read on for more!

Dronning Marie Dal – a glacial stream valley at the head of Skjoldungensund fjord, Greenland.
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Greenland – glaciers & ice

Up close and personal with glaciers and their offspring.

[part of a series of posts beginning here]

It’s hard to imagine the size of Greenland, or its ice cap.  Even those glaciers that flow down to the sea, like the Thryms glacier below, are truly massive.   (Notice our ship, the National Geographic Endurance, at lower left!) Read on for more about our outings among the ice, including video…

The NG Endurance near Thryms glacier; Skjoldungensund fjord, Greenland.
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Greenland – fjords and scenery

We spent most of our time in Greenland in the extensive fjord systems that shape its southern tip.

[part of a series of posts beginning here]

Although our route sometimes had the Endurance sailing offshore overnight south along the eastern coast, and sailing north along the western coast, most of our time in Greenland was spent in the extensive fjord systems that shape the southern tip of Greenland.  In this landscape, a visitor can understand why the early Norse settlers named this land Grœnland (green land) when the Norse, led by Erik the Red, settled here in 982. Although these fjords have steep walls and deep waters, their shores and (rare) shallow glacial plains are covered in a green, grassy tundra sprinkled with heather, dwarf willow, dwarf birch, crowberries, blueberries, and a variety of wildflowers. Although “Iceland’s landscape is the world’s youngest and most dynamic, the rocks of Greenland are the oldest yet discovered on the planet.” [NatGeo] Read on for more…

Arrival in Greenland – entering Skjoldungensund fjord.
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Greenland – whales

Exciting encounters with whales, three evenings in a row.

[part of a series of posts beginning here]

Shortly after dinner on our first night aboard, as we cruised the Iceland coast toward its western peninsulas, the ship’s naturalists – always on the lookout – announced we had come upon a group of whales.  It turned out to be a pod of minke whales and a bubble-feeding humpback whale.   The ship paused as passengers enjoyed watching the humpback, right next to the ship, repeatedly blew a circle of bubbles, and then surfaced in the middle to swallow a massive gulp of fish that it had ‘trapped’ in the confused circle created by the bubbles.  I stood on Deck 6 forward, capturing snaps of the smaller minke whales in between sightings of the humpback.  Check out the gallery of my images, and watch a video, including some from the moment below captured by National Geographic photographer Nick Cobbins. Read on for more…

Humpback whale, surfacing
Humpback whale, bubble feeding – off the coast of Iceland. Still from a Video by Nick Cobbing.
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Greenland – natural history

First in a series of posts about natural history experienced during our Greenland cruise.

[part of a series of posts beginning here]

One of the wonderful aspects of a National Geographic expedition is the opportunity to travel to remote places – places only accessible by ship, completely uninhabited – and to explore the tundra, fjords, and deep seas for some of the incredible wildlife that calls this wilderness its home.  As part of our ten-day cruise from Iceland to the southern fjords of Greenland, we had ample opportunity to watch whales feeding, trek across treeless tundra, lock eyes with caribou, beachcomb remote shores, boat among the berglets that emerge from tidal glaciers, and even glimpse the aurora borealis.   In the next several posts I’ll share a sample of each.  Meanwhile, a special tidbit from the last night of the trip!

Aurora Borealis
Aurora Borealis, from the ship’s balcony, offshore Greenland. (click for full-res view)
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Greenland

A ten-day cruise from Iceland to the southern coast of Greenland.

Recent trips to the Antarctic [South Georgia, 2023] and the Arctic [Finland, 2024] whet my appetite for exploring further in the polar regions, so I jumped at the chance to cruise southern Greenland in late summer.  Indeed, because this cruise began and ended in Iceland, it gave me a chance to expand on my prior visit to Iceland [2024] to explore its southeast coast.  Finally, this cruise was aboard the National Geographic Endurance, the same ship we’d sailed on our cruise of South Georgia and the Falklands in 2023, and which I found to be a terrific experience. Read on!

Photo of The Endurance, seen from the icy water near Thryms glacier; Skjoldungensund fjord, Greenland.
The Endurance, seen from the icy water near Thryms glacier; Skjoldungensund fjord, Greenland.
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Middle Sister

Another peak on a hazy day.

Despite the stagnant weather – which has left us to suffer without rain for two weeks, in hot, hazy, and humid conditions suffused with smoke from distant Canadian wildfires – I was itching to get out for one more hike. Today I scampered up a small peak with an unassuming name but a fantastic view: Middle Sister. This granite-topped peak formerly hosted a stone firetower, offering nearly 360º views of the southern high peaks’ region of what is now White Mountain National Forest. One of three bumps on a ridge connected to their more famous neighbor, Mount Chocorua, the Three Sisters have views nearly as good but with far fewer people. Indeed, it’s possible I was the only visitor to Middle Sister and First Sister today. Read on!

Photo of Mount Chocorua from First Sister peak
Mount Chocorua seen from First Sister peak – White Mountains NH.
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Lyme wildlife – July (part 2)

The second installment in a two-part post of July/August wildlife videos.

Over the past two years, most of my wildlife videos have been captured by cameras placed on a hill near my home. In this post – my final post of wildlife-camera video until next year – I have some pretty neat stuff to share. Lots of bobcats and black bears! Read on to watch both videos.

bear cub crossing a log right in front of the camera…
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