Places»Iceland»Iceland, Hornstrandir NP, 2026

Iceland's Hornstrandir National Park, which I visited early March 2026 with my Niece Ruthie to photograph Arctic Foxes, is only accessible by boat... usually from stunning Ísafjörður, which is surrounded by spectacular mountains. (The trip was organized by Josh Holko - thanks Josh!)

Upon arriving at Hornstrandir, zodiacs transported us to a 100yr old house that was built by homesteaders, and abandoned 20yrs later... before being renovated recently and re-purposed for short-term stays. The weather ranged from relatively calm, to blizzards with driven snow and severe winds.

More than 95% of Arctic Foxes in the world are of the white variety. But there is a lesser known "blue-morph" Arctic Fox population that is found mostly in the coastal areas of Iceland, Greenland and Aleutian Islands.

The "blue" morph can be blueish, brown or grey. In Iceland over 50% of the Arctic Foxes are blue-morph, as were all the foxes we encountered at Hornstrandir (brown in our case). They feed mostly on the beach, where their color helps them blend in with the beach rocks (as opposed to the snow). Because of the cabin they're somewhat used to humans and relatively easy to approach for photography.

The foxes are constantly getting into "sibling scuffles" when they're competing for food. I've added a bunch more "scuffle sequences" at this link.

After returning from Hornstrandir, we did a little touring on the south coast of Iceland.

Cheers!
Jerry