Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland

Vatnajökull National Park in Iceland is one of the top national parks in Europe and should not be ignored on our list. You will enjoy visiting this nature reserve, which resembles a collection of all of Iceland's natural treasures and enchants tourists with outstanding panoramic, geological, and botanical sensations. This European national park gets its name from its massive glacier, Vatnajökull, which means "water glacier" in Icelandic. Despite the fact that a substantial portion of the national park is beneath the icecap of the glacier Vatnajökull, its landscapes are diversified, owing mostly to the interaction of volcanic activity and glacier.

Few other sites on the planet display the influence of such a diverse variety of natural events as Vatnajökull, which was formed by the combined forces of rivers, glacial ice, volcanic and geothermal activity. With the exception of the Mrdalsjökull glacier, nothing in Iceland receives more precipitation or has more water drain to the sea than the south side of Vatnajökull. In fact, so much water is presently stored in Vatnajökull that it would take almost 200 years for the Icelandic River with the largest flow, lfusá, to transport this amount of water to the sea.

Many towering, spectacular mountain ridges line the south side of Vatnajökull, with outlet glaciers sliding between them into the lowlands. The glacier's southernmost reaches encircle the central volcano Raefajökull and Iceland's tallest mountain, Hvannadalshnkur. The verdant oasis of Skaftafell, sheltered by high glaciers, overlooks the black sands deposited to the west by the river Skeiará. These sands are largely made up of ash from the numerous eruptions of Grmsvötn volcano, which is carried to the shore by glacial floods or jökulhlaups.

Location: Skutustaðahreppur, Nordhurland Eystra, Iceland