To the top of Kingittoq: Humpback whales at golden hour

For our last full day in Ilulissat, Charlotte and I wanted to make the most out of it, so we headed straight out for a sunset hike after our boat trip to the Kangia Icefjord. The evening before, we had hiked with Ali and Maria to Radiofjeldet, which is known as the best sunset spot in Ilulissat. But Charlotte and I had a plan to find an even better spot, closer to the icebergs, and we were going to seek out the “mountain” of Kingittoq for that.

Kingittoq is only 96 meters high, but it offers an incredible view of the icefjord. The hike out there is about an hour long, walking mostly along the yellow trail, or off trail as we decided to do. It was quicker, and we also got to hike on some new terrain.

We got to the top of the mountain half an hour before sunset, just enough time to sit and watch it and take photos without freezing. It was actually a surprisingly mild evening, maybe because the sun had been out all day.

As we sat there on Kingittoq and watched the sun go down, we talked about how amazing our trip to Ilulissat had been. It was coming to an end; we were watching our last sunset on the trip, and I can’t even describe how incredible it had been. It was worth every penny spent, and I can promise you that I would’ve done it all again – even for double the price! That’s how amazing Ilulissat is.

Shortly after 6.30 PM, the sun had vanished below the horizon, leaving behind a beautiful orange sky. We were about to leave when Charlotte shouted out the magical word; “Whale! Whale!”. Once again, I couldn’t believe our luck.

There we were, perched atop a mountain looking out at the sunset over the Kangia Icefjord, and there were two whales. How lucky can two people really be?

The two whales were humpback whales like the ones we had seen on the ferry, the long hike and the boat trip, but this experience beat them all. We watched them for about half an hour, as they swam in an out of the fjord, assumingly in confusion of where they should go. I couldn’t think of a more perfect ending to our trip.