Blow your mind with the Westfjords' big skies, rainbows, ridges, sorcerers and lots of seabirds

ICELAND // The Westfjords is Iceland's magnificence, hidden in plain sight. Only about 10% of visitors ever come to this remote region, and so the gorgeous series of rainbow-topped fjords remains a fresh, untrammelled zone. It's crowned in the north by the hiking reserve Hornstrandir, an enclave of Arctic foxes and seabirds. The Strandir region is known as the former home of Iceland's sorcerers, and it remains a fog-shrouded, end-of-the-road kind of place, with just a few village outposts and razor-backed ridges in between. As you head south through the undulating fjords, you'll encounter gigantic waterfalls, like glorious Dynjandi, which really roars as it catches all of the runoff of nearby mountain valleys. In the south, the white- or red-sand beaches are well worth the trek. One reward is the Latrabjarg bird cliffs, where puffins, razorbills, guillemots, cormorants, fulmars, gulls and kittiwakes nest from June to mid- August. Small fishing villages dot the region, offering a respite from the wilds with a warm bowl of soup and hot, fresh bread. Not to mention a good story or two.