Places From the Backwoods Wants to Go

The bright red stripes streaking across the rocks are the star feature at this Icelandic waterfall.

This plaque tells the story of an event that took place in an imagined parallel universe.

A "simple-hearted artist" turned an isolated Icelandic valley into his own art museum.

Akureyri is home to an oversized can of one of Iceland's favourite beers.

Surrounded by ash fields in Iceland, an impossibly verdant valley looks like something out of a fairytale.

This natural rock formation features seemingly unnatural vertical ridges that have been blamed on elves.

This elderly couple's hand-picked collection of rare gems is one of the finest in all of Iceland.

A modern Nordic Pompeii on the Icelandic island of Heimaey.

A bit of the Berlin Wall was gifted to the Icelandic capital to commemorate the 25th anniversary of German reunification.

Twisted girders are all that remain of an Icelandic bridge that was wiped out by a combination of volcanic heat and glacial floods.

This secluded Iceland farm holds the collected works of one rural sculptor's creations.

Icelandic folklore says this giant boulder was ripped from the mountains and placed at its current location, where it became home to elves.

This beautiful, historic church looks like something out of a simpler past.

The picturesque birthplace of Icelandic democracy is drenched in the blood of its brutal past.

Puffin enthusiasts flock to Europe's largest seabird cliff, which over one million birds call home.

This rusting remnant of the local herring industry is being given a second life.

Eerie ruins of an abandoned medieval fishing village crumble atop an unforgiving stretch of earth.

An Icelandic island full of diving birds and legend.

This black church sits alone among a field of lava rock.

The summer tourists on these cliffs are thousands of seabirds.

A formerly glacier-tipped volcano that inspired none other than Jules Verne.

Three million year old fossils are exposed for all to see on this Icelandic shore.

A little-visited waterfall in an otherworldly landscape.

This mountain fissure hides a secret path to a secluded mossy grotto within the rock itself.