4 Best Sights in The Highlands, Iceland

North of Hveravellir and the Kjalhraun lava field is the expansive, milky-green Blöndulón lagoon—a man-made lake formed when the Blanda river was dammed together with the source of the river Kolkukvísl for the Blanda hydroelectric power plant, which came online in 1991. The lagoon forms the third-largest lake in Iceland.

A glacier outlet from the Langjökull ice cap occasionally calves into Hvítárvatn (White River Lake), a 275-foot-deep glacial lagoon filled with milky-blue water. Accessed via a turnoff on Route 35, the whole area—featuring an oasis of vegetation with marshy plains and the haunted old Sæluhúsið cabin—creates a captivating scene.

As the largest lake in Iceland, Þórisvatn has a surface area of around 88 square km (about 33 square miles). Serving as a reservoir, the lake increased in size when water was diverted from the Kaldakvísl River for a hydroelectric plant. The scenic lake lies to the east of Route F26 around 18 km (11 miles) northeast of Hrauneyjar Highland Center.

A rare instance of true beauty in the often bleak Highlands, this lake on the southern part of the Askja caldera formed when a magma chamber collapsed in on itself (a subsidence cauldron) after the devastating volcanic event of 1875. At approximately 220 meters (722 feet) deep, the lake is one of the deepest in Iceland and still growing.