JULY 2023 · ADVENTURE
Between 3 glaciers - Iceland Highlands trek, day three
Icelandic Highlands between glaciers
Black volcanic desert is the accurate description. Not a metaphor, not an approximation. The ground is black — volcanic sand and basalt fragments — and it extends to the mountains on every side with very little to interrupt it. On day three the route moved through this terrain toward three interconnected glacial lakes sitting in the plateau between the surrounding glaciers.
The descent to the plateau was steep, down a marked trail on a black slope, the valley below not yet showing what it contained. From the ridge the scale of the plateau resolved: flat, dark, the lakes appearing as three bright interruptions in the ground.
It felt like a discovery that wasn't — someone had been there before — but felt like one anyway.
Icelandic Highlands between glaciers — July 2023
The lakes are turquoise in a glacial lake way — the colour produced by fine rock particles suspended in the meltwater. In a black landscape, the contrast is total. Each lake sits in its own depression, connected to the others by channels, the whole complex fed by the glaciers on the surrounding slopes.
Two trekkers crossing the black sand toward the volcanic cones in the distance. The cones are small from the plateau, symmetrical, rising from the flat ground without building. A hiker in a yellow jacket and sunglasses standing somewhere mid-plateau, hair moving in the wind, the highlands extending behind. The wind on day three was consistent and cold.
What made this day different from the established routes was the absence of other people. The Laugavegur trail was somewhere to the east and not visible. We were the only group moving across the plateau between the glaciers, and the lakes were empty of anyone else.
The aerial view of all three lakes together: the turquoise against black, the mountains framing it. The landscape's argument, made plainly.
Hikers on brown mountain slope with glacial lake below
Two trekkers crossing black volcanic sand desert with mountains beyond
Trekkers on summit ridge overlooking vast volcanic plateau with glacial lakes
Solo hiker descending marked trail on black volcanic slope
Hiker in yellow jacket and sunglasses with windswept hair in highlands
Panoramic volcanic highlands with glacial rivers and snow-capped peaks
Hiker descending scree slope with coloured volcanic mountains beyond
Glacial lake in volcanic crater surrounded by dark lava fields
Aerial view of three interconnected glacial lakes between volcanic mountains
Two hikers crossing barren volcanic plateau with cones in distance
Moss-covered volcanic mountain slope with black lava fields below
Solo hiker on moss-covered ridge trail overlooking volcanic valley