That’s what the sunset looked like from the van, sometime a little bit before I started thinking about heading to bed. Pretty, and definitely worth photographing, but… you know, nothing too crazy.
What it looked like from the air, though… that’s a different story.
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Those two are the best of the rest.
And when I say that they’re the best… I am staggered by how well they turned out. The rest are amazing in their own right, but these two… these are getting printed for my new apartment in Dublin, no doubt in my mind.
After staying the evening at Vik, and having a lovely breakfast at the nearby “Skool beans” schoolbus / coffee shop, I noticed something. A few pillars, offshore.
A quick look at Google Maps found what I was looking at, and a quick review of the drive found it to be… surprisingly short!
Hey, what’s the point of doing a van roadtrip if I can’t just randomly see a thing and then drive to see it, right? So, unsurprisingly, I drove over to see what the fuss was about!
When I arrived, I arrived to tour busses. Just… so many tour busses. Which is fine – means I picked a popular spot to sightsee, right? Well… sort of. It was popular, no doubt, but to be frank… the beach itself wasn’t particularly exciting. I think I must have arrived around mid-tide, because there wasn’t really much to see.
I flew my drone, got a simply amazing picture of the sea stacks, and then noticed another interesting ocean formation nearby. Hmm. Maybe I’ll go visit that one next…
But why not, when the goal is just to get out of town and sleep on the glacier? I mean… the goal here isn’t to get crazy views (even though I like to!), nor is the goal to hike a ton of distance (though I do hike some extra miles when I can)… The goal is to get out of town, carve a spot into the snow, and appreciate the cold and solitude.
The white river glacier works well for that – I know it like the back of my hand, it’s not a long hike, and I can take my time on the drive out. I mean, I’ve never set alarms for days that I go up onto the white river glacier. I wake up slow, get brunch, then… take it easy. It’s nice.
This trip was no different from the others. I mean, I didn’t even get to the trailhead ’till 5:00 or so! And Sundown was 6:30!
But that’s fine – I know the path, I have headlamps, and…
Why was there a fire going near my campsite? Was there someone else in my spot?? For the first time in three years???
No, dear readers, thankfully I hadn’t been site-sniped. It was better… so much better. I’ve never seen any one else camping near my area, in the 3+ years I’ve been up that trail. Which is kind of strange, since I only found this specific spot because, when I went up in 2021, someone else had already carved it out from the hillside…
Anyways, I met a team of folks who were making fondue, and we shared fondue. It was delicious, and I very much plan on making fondue the next time I go backpacking. Also I plan on saying fondue as many fondue times as I fon-can. Do. Due.
In trade, I promised aerial pictures of their camp – I made sure they were okay with my flying my drone ahead of time, of course, and they were quite psyched for the opportunity, so… win-win, right? Heck yeah, right.
The rest of the trip was exactly as normal – quiet, relaxing, and exceptionally enjoyable. I adore the snow, the cold, and the quiet that I can’t ever seem to find in the summer. Something about the stillness of the air, maybe? Or where the world seems to be hibernating, and not expecting anything from us? I can’t say for certain, but I can say that I appreciate it.
