Northshore Magazine

Northshore September 18

Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.

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NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 42 SEPTEMBER 2018 PHOTOGRAPHS BY, LEFT TO RIGHT, BELZIE MONT-LOUIS, SHUTTERSTOCK Bees buzz among yellow flowers alongside the hiking trail leading to the Skaftafellsjökull glacier, located in a huge national park in southeastern Iceland. e glacier is visible a couple hundred yards ahead of us, beyond a small black lagoon left behind as the tongue receded up the mountain. I wonder how long it's been since the spot where I'm standing was covered with ice. Iceland is having a moment as it melts. Tourism picked up here after the 2008 financial crash, and the country of 300,000 now attracts around 2 million visitors a year. At the park's visitor center, a series of photographs shows how glaciers here have been shrinking in recent decades, and I wonder if this influx of tourism stems partly from some unconscious desire to see these wonders before climate change does any more damage. THIN ICE As the planet warms, Iceland's legendary natural beauty feels the heat. By Calvin Hennick / F A C E S + P L A C E S / As my wife snaps photos, I chase my children down the path toward the lagoon. We hop over a small stream of glacier melt, and then I try to teach my son how to skip stones in the lagoon while my daughter stacks them in piles on the rocky beach. Our trip has been full of moments like this— everyday family activities occurring in surreal settings. Iceland is a place where the world shows its age, where it's easy to see evidence of the centuries and millennia stacked on top of each other in the landscape. Earlier in the trip, the kids scrambled up jagged formations in a lava field called Dimmuborgir ("Dark Castles") in the country's north, peeking out from behind towers created 2,000 years ago. Later Top to bottom, The Skaftafellsjökull glacier and the Dimmuborgir lava field—Dark Castles.

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