Ilulissat Icefjord

The Ilulissat Icefjord is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most spectacular natural phenomena on earth. The Sermeq Kujalleq glacier calves colossal icebergs into the fjord at a rate that makes it visibly, almost alarmingly, dynamic. The icebergs pile up at the fjord's shallow mouth in a grinding, creaking mass before finally escaping into Disko Bay.

A network of trails along the fjord rim makes the spectacle accessible without requiring any technical skill. The most popular route is the boardwalk path that begins just south of town and winds along the clifftop above the ice — about an hour each way at a gentle pace. Go at midnight in summer when the sun is still up and the light turns everything amber and pink.

The fjord looks different in every season: summer brings open water, blue skies, and extraordinary midnight sun light; winter locks the bay in sea ice and the icebergs glow blue-green in the low polar light. Both are worth the trip.

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A story
The Sermeq Kujalleq glacier that feeds this fjord is one of the fastest-moving glaciers in the world, advancing 20 to 30 meters per day and producing roughly 10 percent of all Greenlandic icebergs. Icebergs calved here are so enormous that they jam at the shallow mouth of the fjord, sometimes for years, before eventually breaking loose and drifting south into the North Atlantic — the same waters where the Titanic met its end.