The Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon was very high on my list of must-visit places in Iceland.  So we spent our first two nights in Iceland at the fairly-nearby Hali Country Hotel.

We left Boston at 9:30 PM and arrived in Iceland at 6:30 AM after a short 5 hour flight.  After picking up two cars for the four of us, we took a 4+ mile morning hike over lava to the Hafenberg bird cliffs, stopped in Selfoss for groceries, and endured a fairly long drive along Route 1, the Ring Road.  We stopped briefly at the glacier lagoon before checking into our lodging. The lagoon was amazing.  We did not realize how spectacular the other side of the Ring Road would be. We would find out the next afternoon, after a trip to Höfn for much-needed gas and a hike around town. Here are some of the photos I took of the lagoon late in the day we arrived in Iceland.

Across the Ring Road from the glacier lagoon are a pair of black sand beaches, where large and small icebergs from the lagoon wash ashore, after being transported along a mostly natural canal. The photo below shows a berg heading out to sea along this passage with gulls hitching a ride.

There were a few seals in the waterway.

One can park on either side of the canal. Marc chose what was by far the best side. The crowds were on the other side, and the most photogenic icebergs were on our side. We had “our” beach to ourselves. Here is an overview from Google Earth. The glacier lagoon is at the top left.

Below you can see the crowds on the “wrong” side of the canal.

It was about 2:30 PM when we first walked the jetty to the ice beach. In the second image below you can see Marc in the distance and the people on the beach across the canal.

One of the first photos I took of the icebergs on the beach fairly well illustrates the scene — many different ice shapes moving to and fro with the waves.

Here is a photographing hint for photographing objects on a beach with waves coming and going. You, of course, want to use a tripod, but my main hint is that most of the best photos are taken when the water is receding.

Here is a slide show of a single iceberg. In each photo the water is receding.

For comparison, here is the best photo I took of the same iceberg with the water coming it.  It is not a bad photo, but I do not like it as well as the others. I actually did not edit it until I needed a comparison photo for this spot.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the ice beach. They were taken late in the afternoon our first full day in Iceland and before breakfast the next day. It would have been great to get them with a colorful sunset or sunrise, but it was not to be.

Here are more of the photos I took on this very interesting beach.

If you are a photographer, this is one place in Iceland you should not miss.