Glaciers and national parks

This somewhat national-romantic tour through perhaps the world's most beautiful fjord between the villages of Eidfjord, Ulvik, and Lofthus gives many souls visual chills. Nonetheless, there is a real cold lurking around the corner. These municipalities house or border large parts of two of Norway's coldest, inaccessible, and hardy areas, Hardangervidda and Hardangerjøkulen. The former is Europe's largest high mountain plateau and Scandinavia's largest national park. Hardangerjøkulen is Norway's sixth-largest glacier. It is about 300 meters thick at its deepest point and has a larger area than Manhattan in New York. The name "jøkulen" comes from "jøkul," which means icicle or glacier. With its azure blue ice, it is a beautiful sight that reveals itself as you approach the glacier, especially in the summer when the ice sparkles in the sunlight. There are over 1,500 glaciers in Norway covering almost 1% of the country's land area. Since the beginning of the 2000s, most of the glaciers in Norway have melted back significantly, mainly as a result of warm summers. The earth is getting warmer, and if climate projections prove true, according to Norwegian researchers, there will be only 28 glaciers left in the country in 100 years.