Among lakes and waterfalls: A sunny day in the Flower Valley

The Flower Valley (‘Naasuliardarpi’, ‘Blomsterdalen’). The name alone had me longing to go there. And the amount of times I’ve walked past its entrance or seen it from afar, thinking how magically beautiful it looked, didn’t help. I was dying to satisfy my curiosity, to finally hike into the valley. But I wanted to wait for a sunny day, and preferably a weekend day so I could spend as much time as I liked.

On my second Saturday in Tasiilaq, that day finally came. I woke up to a clear sky and a warm sun shining upon the town. It couldn’t possibly have been better.

I had gotten a little taste of the valley one afternoon where I hiked up to a viewpoint of both the town and the valley. From up there, it already looked magical. I was beyond excited to get going.

I left my apartment just before noon, ready for a beautiful day in nature. My apartment is just a ten minute walk away from the entrance to the valley, an entrance I’d stared at with stars in my eyes for too long. Now I was finally going to enter it.

Tasiilaq’s only graveyard is located a few hundred meters into the valley, so it’s a natural first stop on a hike through the valley. The many white crosses and the colourful fake flowers on the graves makes it look beautiful, especially with the mountainous backdrop. It’s definitely a beautiful and peaceful place to be laid to rest. But the many pictures of young faces that shouldn’t be there are the sad reminder of the high suicide rate amongst youth here in Tasiilaq, something that’s difficult not to be confronted with when living here.

I pulled myself away from the isolated graveyard and went further into the valley, following the winding river. Three schoolboys ran past me, they were also out enjoying the brilliant weather.

Despite the name of the valley, there weren’t many flowers about on this Autumn day, so I can only imagine how beautiful it must look in the summer with flowers in full bloom. It was already incredibly beautiful now.

There’s a marked round-trip trail that goes from the town, through the valley and back to the other end of town, a five km hike amongst mountains, hills, lakes and waterfalls. I followed this trail and came past two incredibly beautiful lakes, both with a small waterfall. At the latter lake, I took a small detour to climb to the top of the waterfall where the view was even better. Now I suddenly had both lakes in my view at the same time. As I stood there in awe, I realized something. THIS is how paradise looks, it has to be, because nothing can be more beautiful than this.

The completely still wind created perfect reflections in the water, but it also came with a challenge. Small demons in the form of black flies, constantly flying into my eyes, nose and ears. And occasionally mouth. I had the same problem on the trek to Kapisillit… They really do seem to like me!

I was constantly on the lookout for polar bears, like I always am when hiking in Greenland. It’s not likely to encounter one here, but you can never be 100 percent sure. It’s a shame, because it makes me nervous to hike in Greenland as I’m constantly looking over my shoulder, but I can’t keep myself inside. Of course, as I might have expected if I could think rationally, I’ve still never seen a polar bear.

Not long after I’d left the two lakes behind, I came out to the gravel road leading to the trail for Mt. Aammangaaq (‘Præstefjeldet’, ‘the Priest’s Mountain’), a mountain that I climbed just two days later. In the other direction, it leads back to the town through an area with hundreds of sled dogs, where I saw the most adorable puppies!

I got back to the town just two hours after I’d started – and I even walked slow to fully enjoy it! It’s a very short hike, but that also means I’ll have time to do it plenty of times for the next many weeks! I’m dreaming of a heavy snowfall; I can only imagine how beautiful the valley would look covered in a blanket of white.