(Mareike 7.16.09): We arrived at Skaftafell National Park around 3 p.m. Since this is the European holiday season, there were many tourists and campers at the park. We headed out on a moderately steep trail to Svartifoss waterfall. Along the way we passed a smaller waterfall, at the head of which we found what we thought was a troll hut. Upon investigation, Bill and Tom found that the building actually contained a restored a restored turbine that was used to generate electricity for a local farm in the early 20th-century.
We continued on to Svartifoss (“black falls”), a high falls that tumbles over a wall of basalt columns that appear from a distance to be massive wooden planks. 
From Svartifoss we traversed a high meadow Sjornarnipa, a point that overlooks the massive glacier, Skaftafelljökull. From this point we could see the broad, curved sweep of the glacier 
, which terminates in a series of small lakes and braided streams that run across the massive black plain to the sea. 
