Iceland: Hornstrandir Nature Reserve
Immerse yourself even more fully into the remotest part of the remotest part of Iceland: the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve. We’ll camp in style during a fully catered experience in this stunningly beautiful, untouched wilderness. Days will be spent observing and photographing arctic foxes, as well as hiking through the valleys and up into the hills along the ubiquitous cascading waterfalls.
Tour Details
August 8-15, 2026 — 3 Spots Left
This is a 7-night, 8-day tour. Your adventure begins with your arrival in Iceland on August 8 and ends with your departure on August 15.
$6,695 singles, $12,295 two people sharing a room. Register below.
Skill level
Intermediate+. Participants should have a firm grasp of the basic principles of photography and of their cameras, and have a comfortable understanding of night photography fundamentals.
Group size
12, with 2 instructors — 6:1 ratio
Location Website
Tour Leaders
Registration
| • Deposit of $1,695 for singles or $2,295 for two people sharing a room is required to reserve your spot at the tour. |
| • Balance of $5,000 for singles or $10,000 for two people sharing a room is due on April 10, 2026. → Pay balance here. |
| • You may choose the “Pay in Full” ticket if you desire to pay all at once. |
| • Last day for a cancellation request is April 9, 2026. (see cancellation and refund policy) |
| • The tour fee does not include some lunches, airfare or tips to our camp hosts. |
The Hornstrandir Nature Reserve Experience
This adventure features 3 nights in hotels, and 4 nights of fully catered camping in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, which is located in the furthest tip of the Westfjords and is only accessible by boat.
The tour is designed to get you comfortably and safely into the most hard-to-reach part of the Icelandic coast, and to provide a unique place in Iceland to view the solar eclipse on August 12. If you want to experience and photograph the pristine beauty of one of the best-kept secrets in Iceland, with a chance of photographing the eclipse and auroras during the solar maximum, then this is the trip for you!
Upon arrival in Iceland, we’ll spend a night in Reykjavik in our favorite hotel, starting with a welcome dinner in the city. The following afternoon we'll depart from the domestic airport for Isafjordur, the largest town in the Westfjords. We’ll have dinner and spend the night in Isafjordur before embarking on a 2.5-hour boat ride to our camp the next morning.
For the next 5 days and 4 nights we’ll explore the nature reserve on foot, often being transported to the starting point of our hikes by Zodiac. We’ll spend the days observing and photographing the foxes and seabirds, rugged coastline, cliffs, waterfalls, etc., as well as filling our bellies with wild blueberries that will be at the peak of their season. We’ll spend our nights enjoying the long summer twilight, and hoping to catch some early-season auroras from our camp in the middle of the reserve.
Being in the reserve gives us the opportunity to photograph Iceland’s only native land mammal, the elusive arctic fox. The reserve is also the breeding grounds for over 6 million seabirds, which offers many photographic opportunities in the stunning late summer landscape.
As for the solar eclipse that will happen during the trip: Some degree of cloud cover is likely, so we can’t guarantee we’ll have a chance to shoot it. However, we will prepare you to photograph the eclipse in advance of the tour, so if everything aligns well, you’ll be ready. We will plan a location where we might be able to observe and shoot the eclipse, and we will be prepared to help you on site before and during the event. (If photographing the eclipse is your primary goal, you might consider our Spain Solar Eclipse tour instead. )
After our time camping in Hornstrandir, we'll return to Reykjavik for a farewell dinner on our final night in Iceland before our flights home on August 15.
What You Should Know
This tour caters to knowledgeable photographers with an intermediate or higher skill set. Participants should have a firm grasp of the basic principles of photography and of their cameras, and have a comfortable understanding of night photography fundamentals.
If you would like to attend this tour but are unsure whether you have adequate night photography skills, we can offer pre-trip tutoring to get you ready for your adventure with us. Alternatively or additionally, a few of us have written books that may be productive pre-trip reads.
What You Will Learn
We hope to push you to step outside your comfort zone—to test the limits of what you and your camera can do.
We will be happy to offer advice and answer questions about both day and night photography, but the focus of the adventure will be photographing this incredible landscape and the wildlife that calls it home, and seeking unparalleled nighttime photography opportunities, including auroras.
In-Field TOPICS COVERED WILL INCLUDE:
seeking wildlife photography opportunities: foxes, birds and possibly whales
waterfall and landscape photography
using neutral density filters for long exposures in daylight
photographing auroras
photographing a solar eclipse
and more …
This is a camping adventure, so there will be no classroom sessions. We will offer eclipse instruction prior to the tour, and the instructors will be available to help with your eclipse, aurora, wildlife and other photo questions in the field. We will also celebrate your images via Zoom after we return home.
Night & Light Conditions
Logistics & General Info
Travel
This photo adventure begins and ends in Reykjavik, Iceland.
You will need a ticket to and from Reykjavik (KEF) from your home airport on the airline of your choosing. You should arrive in the morning or afternoon on August 8, and take any flight home on August 15, or later if you wish to stay longer in Iceland.
You will also need a roundtrip ticket from Reykjavik Domestic Airport (RKV) to Isafjordur (IFJ) on IcelandAir, traveling August 9 and 14. You should purchase the afternoon flight for both. We will provide specific flight numbers when the airline schedule is announced.
Lodging & Food
Our sleeping arrangements will change a few times:
Our first night will be at our favorite hotel in Reykjavik.
There will be 1 night at a hotel in Isafjordur before the camping trip.
There are 4 nights of fully catered camping in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve.
Our last night will be back in Reykjavik.
All meals starting with dinner on August 8 through breakfast on August 15 are included, except lunches in Reykjavik and Isafjordur.
Weather
Temperatures should be between 40 and 55 F, with the possibility of wind, rain or brilliant sunshine. It’s best to be prepared for anything. We will send you a list of recommended attire well in advance of the trip.
Exertion Level
The exertion level of this tour is Active. (See more about our classifications.)
This adventure involves getting in and out of Zodiacs onto rocky shores with potentially slippery rocks. We anticipate only dry landings, but you might get your feet wet. There will be daily hikes of up to several miles, often climbing along waterfalls up from the shore. We’ll have guided hikes to the dens of arctic foxes and casual walks along the rocky coastline.
You may opt out of any activities you don’t feel up to, but if you feel intimidated by the idea of a 2- to 3-mile hike, this probably isn’t the adventure for you. If 2-3 miles is insufficient, don’t fret––there are hills galore to explore!
Note: To ensure the safety of individuals and the group, the tour leaders may use their discretion to limit an attendee from engaging in a vigorous activity on-site should that person's physical health or ability be in question. If you are unsure about your ability to meet the physical demands of this tour, we will be happy to discuss your concerns one-on-one before you register. You are also, of course, welcome to attend the tour and sit out any physical activity that makes you uncomfortable. In such cases, we can provide you with ideas for alternative shoot locations for that time.
Considerations
IMPORTANT: We encourage reading our FAQs section for more information about skill and gear requirements, and other information that pertains to all our workshops.
If you have questions, please contact us—we're happy to talk it over with you.
Outdoorsing at the edge of the world …
“This time I’ll arrive just as summer is winding down, as the puffins are setting out to sea for the winter, and as the hillsides are absolutely covered with blueberries and crowberries.”
I love my job.
For as long as I’ve been traveling to Iceland, all the way back to 2007, I’d been looking at the seemingly impossible-to-reach northeastern tip of the Westfjords peninsula on the map, trying to figure out how I was going to get there. No roads, no hotels, no tourists. Just wildlife and nature. Djupavik––itself one of my favorite places in Iceland––was as close as I had gotten.
On a 2019 trip to the Westfjords with my wife Katherine, we drove north from the old herring factory at Djupavik to the end of the road, and that was as close as we could get. Had we been prepared to hike and camp, we could have walked into Hornstrandir from there, but we were not.
Early in July 2022 I finally made it, aboard the schooner Arktika with a hardy group of National Parks at Night travelers, and it was everything I’d hoped for––except dark. We didn’t see too many stars in early July, and being based on a boat meant that we didn’t get ashore at night very often. Countless waterfalls, wildflowers, seabirds, foxes, salt and solitude. It was glorious.
This time I’ll arrive just as summer is winding down, as the puffins are setting out to sea for the winter, and as the hillsides are absolutely covered with blueberries and crowberries. The fox kits will be getting more adventurous, venturing further from their dens and their mothers, and eager to pose for our long lenses. Darkness will have returned––albeit late at night––to 66°N by then, and we’ll be ready and waiting for that explosion of color in the night sky that is the aurora borealis. I am truly blessed.
