Jostedalsbreen is not a single flowing river of ice but a high-altitude ice cap that sends roughly 50 glacier arms cascading into the surrounding valleys. The most famous of these are Briksdalsbreen and Nigardsbreen, each accessible to hikers who make the trek to stand at the glacier's terminus and feel the cold air pouring off the ice face. Briksdalsbreen descends into the Briksdal Valley near the village of Olden, dropping 1,200 meters between high peaks and waterfalls into a narrow valley that amplifies the glacier's presence. Nigardsbreen, in the Jostedalen valley, extends its blue-tinged snout toward a glacial lake, its surface cracked and crevassed in patterns that shift with the seasons. The Boyabreen arm is visible from the road near Fjaerland, offering the rare experience of seeing a glacier without leaving your car. Each arm has its own character, its own rate of advance or retreat, and its own relationship with the valley it occupies.

The glacier sits atop the mountains that separate two of the world's longest fjords. To the south lies the Sognefjord, 205 kilometers long and 1,308 meters deep, the king of Norwegian fjords. To the north stretches the Nordfjord, another of western Norway's great sea inlets. Jostedalsbreen's meltwater feeds streams and rivers that cascade down both sides of the divide, carving waterfalls into the rock and filling the glacial lakes that dot the park. The park spans five municipalities in Vestland county: Luster, Sogndal, Gloppen, Sunnfjord, and Stryn. Three visitor centers serve different entry points: the Breheimsenteret in Jostedalen, the national park center in Oppstryn, and the Norwegian Glacier Museum in Fjaerland. The highest peak within the park is Lodalskaapa at 2,083 meters, while the glacier's summit at Brenibba reaches 2,018 meters above sea level.

What sustains Jostedalsbreen is not extreme cold but extreme snowfall. The glacier exists because the western coast of Norway receives enormous quantities of moisture from the Atlantic, and at the high altitudes of the ice cap, that moisture falls as snow that accumulates faster than summer melting can remove it. This means the glacier has unusually high melting rates at its lower elevations, where its arms descend into relatively mild valley climates. The snouts of Briksdalsbreen and Nigardsbreen have retreated significantly in recent decades, a visible measure of warming temperatures. Researchers have mapped the terrain beneath the ice using radar, revealing a hidden landscape of valleys and ridges that the glacier has concealed for centuries. The ruins of those 1750-era farms are a reminder that the glacier's relationship with the valleys is not static: it has advanced and retreated many times, each cycle reshaping the landscape and the lives of the people who depend on it.

The park was established by royal decree on 25 October 1991 and expanded to the northwest in 1998. Its creation recognized that Jostedalsbreen is not merely a scenic attraction but a scientific resource, a laboratory for understanding how glaciers behave and what their changes reveal about the planet's climate. Hiking trails lead to glacier viewpoints and along valley floors where glacial debris tells the story of ice in retreat. Guided glacier walks onto the arms of Jostedalsbreen remain popular, though the routes change as the ice shifts. From the air, the ice cap is unmistakable: a white expanse draped over the mountain ridges, its arms fingering down into green valleys like tentacles. The contrast between the frozen heights and the mild, forested valleys below is one of the most striking visual experiences in Scandinavia, a reminder that the Ice Age never entirely ended here. It just retreated to higher ground.