{"id":3146,"date":"2018-12-10T14:39:24","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T14:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildfoottravel.websitepro.hosting\/?p=3146"},"modified":"2018-12-19T09:58:26","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T09:58:26","slug":"greenland-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildfoottravel.websitepro.hosting\/greenland-national-park","title":{"rendered":"Focus On: Northeast Greenland National Park & Scoresby Sund"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A huge welcome to professional wildlife and landscape photographer, Dave Wilson\u00a0of Northwinds Photography (www.northwindsphotos.com<\/a>). Dave specialises in US National Parks, Botswana, and the polar regions.\u00a0 Here are some of Dave’s fascinating images and thoughts about NorthEast Greenland after a recent trip to the area.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Northeast Greenland National Park, covering almost one million square kilometres is the world\u2019s largest National Park.\u00a0 Due to the relative inaccessibility and vast size, however, this is not a National Park in the normally accepted sense.\u00a0Travelling there involves either significant advance planning or, more normally, joining one of the ship-based expeditions that visit the more accessible areas at the southern end of the Park: Kejser Franz Joseph and Kong Oscar Fjords, along with the neighbouring Scoresby Sund.<\/p>\n

What awaits the visitor, however, is an area of amazing beauty: enormous icebergs; other-worldly geological features; and an overall sense of the wonders of natural wilderness with little to no signs of human intervention.<\/p>\n

When To Go<\/h2>\n

The northerly location (between 71\u00baN and 75\u00baN) restricts most trips to the summer months, with the majority of vessels reaching the park between July and early September.\u00a0 This does mean extremely long days.\u00a0 The sun doesn\u2019t set until the end of July \/ early August (depending on how far north you are) and you can still expect 16 hours of daylight at the end of August in the southern end of the region.\u00a0 Even then, don\u2019t expect warm weather \u2013 highs in the single digit Celsius are about as good as it gets \u2013 so pack with plenty of layers, not forgetting head and hand coverings.\u00a0 When the wind picks up (especially when on deck of a ship), the effective temperature can get to well below freezing.<\/p>\n

Highlight Areas<\/h2>\n

Your itinerary will be determined by the guides on the ship and impacted by sea-ice and weather conditions, so planning on visiting specific areas is something you should expect to be flexible about.\u00a0 The more time your ship has put aside for the area, the better, as there are amazing sights around every corner.\u00a0 The sheer scale of the three fjords is difficult to appreciate until it is experienced.\u00a0\u00a0 Relocating from one landing site to another can often mean 30-40 km of cruising.\u00a0 Here are eight highlight areas you may encounter.<\/p>\n

Walterhausen Glacier, Kejser Franz Joseph Fjord<\/u><\/h2>\n

If you want to get a quick object lesson in the size of the landscape and its features in this part of the world, Walterhausen Glacier is a good place to start.\u00a0 The calving glacier has a 10km wide front with the face often reaching up to 50m high.\u00a0A cruise along the front of the glacier brings home its vast size that can still be appreciated\u00a0 from a distance of some 6 nautical miles.<\/p>\n

\"copyright<\/a><\/p>\n

Blomsterbugt \/ Ymer Island \/ Teufelschloss<\/em><\/h2>\n

Spectacular scenery abounds in this area, dominated by the sheer polychromatic cliffs of the Teufelschloss (the Devil\u2019s Castle) which rises 1370m above sea level.<\/p>\n

\"Blomsterbugt<\/a><\/p>\n


\n<\/a>It is also a good place to see some of the local wildlife, being a frequent hang-out area for Musk Oxen.<\/p>\n

\"Musk<\/a><\/p>\n

Kjerulf Fjord & Nordenskjold Glacier<\/em><\/h2>\n


\n<\/a>\"Iceberg<\/a>Rarely visited, Kjerulf Fjord offers a refuge for icebergs that have calved from the Nordenskjold Glacier.\u00a0 Being quite sheltered, this provides an excellent opportunity for a Zodiac cruise among the icebergs, giving a magnificent close-up perspective of these beautiful structures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The contrast between the icebergs and the metamorphic rocks of the surrounding cliffs is particularly striking.\"Iceberg<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Maria & Ella Islands<\/u><\/h2>\n

\"A<\/a>These islands form a small archipelago at the intersection of the Antarctic Sound, Kempe Fjord and Kong Oscar Fjord.\u00a0 Visible on Maria Island are the remains of German fuel drums from WWII as well as building materials from the various geological camps that have been situated in the area.<\/p>\n

Ella Island is home base to the Danish Army\u2019s Sirius Patrol whose responsibility it is to patrol the east coast of Greenland throughout the year.\u00a0 Despite the remoteness of the location, this is an extremely prestigious and sought-after assignment.\u00a0 The area is ideal for hiking and is particularly noteworthy for its striking geological formations.<\/p>\n

\"Rainbow<\/a><\/p>\n

Alpefjord<\/em><\/h2>\n

\"copyright<\/a>The fjord is so-named because it forms the western boundary of the Stauning Alps, a 40x40km cluster of some of the highest mountains in East Greenland.\u00a0 It is home to the combined fronts of the Gully and Selfstrom glaciers.<\/p>\n

Also in the fjord is the Dammen, a lake that had risen 60m above sea level caused by the glaciers running into the opposing cliffs.\u00a0In the last few hundred years, this glacial dam was breached leaving a gap between the glacial tongue and the cliffs.\u00a0Beyond this gap (which allows ships to pass along the entire front of the combined glaciers) lies further glaciers, icebergs, brash ice, and stunning cliffs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Segelsallskapet Fjord<\/h2>\n

The spectacular mountains in the fjord provide good examples of folded and faulted sedimentary rock layers amongst the Eleonore Bay formations.\u00a0 The landing site provides miniature versions of those layers that look like striped candy.\u00a0This is a truly unbelievable landing site that will pique your interest in geology like nowhere else, and certainly provide the photographers a plethora of subject matter.<\/p>\n

Vikingebugt \/ Bredegletscher Glacier<\/h2>\n

Even compared to the last location, Vikingebugt won\u2019t disappoint your new-found interest in geology.\u00a0 An intrusion of volcanic material 60 million years ago left an pile of basalt up to 10km thick.\u00a0 As it cooled and contracted, the basalt formed into almost perfect hexagonal structures.\"copyright<\/a><\/p>\n

The neighbouring glacier is particularly proficient at producing massive icebergs that slowly drift out of the fjord into Scoresby Sund.\u00a0By the time they reach the relatively open water they have been moulded into the most spectacular shapes.<\/p>\n

\u00d8 Fjord \/ Milne Land<\/h2>\n

\"copyright<\/a>This fjord provides the ship-bound visitor a splendid opportunity to appreciate the multitude of shapes and the range of colour that icebergs can exhibit as they make their way down the channel into the main body of Scorebsy Sund.<\/p>\n

A series of Arctic images and reflections with thanks from Dave Wilson. Photographer. You can see more of David’s work at North Winds Photography<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A huge welcome to professional wildlife and landscape photographer, Dave Wilson\u00a0of Northwinds Photography (www.northwindsphotos.com). Dave specialises in US National Parks, Botswana, and the polar regions.\u00a0 Here are some of Dave’s fascinating images and thoughts about NorthEast Greenland after a recent trip to the area. Northeast Greenland National Park, covering almost one million square kilometres is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10,9,559],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure-travel","category-arctic","category-greenland","category-guest-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildfoottravel.websitepro.hosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildfoottravel.websitepro.hosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildfoottravel.websitepro.hosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildfoottravel.websitepro.hosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildfoottravel.websitepro.hosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3146"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wildfoottravel.websitepro.hosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3227,"href":"https:\/\/wildfoottravel.websitepro.hosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3146\/revisions\/3227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildfoottravel.websitepro.hosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildfoottravel.websitepro.hosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildfoottravel.websitepro.hosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildfoottravel.websitepro.hosting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}