August 19th, 2017
If you read my first post for Alaska you know the opportunity to see Polar Bears was a major deciding factor for me. When people talk about work perks they usually mean free lunch on Fridays or a discounted gym membership, not a free Polar Bear Tour. Every rough day at work I just thought about the Polar Bears and now it was finally happening. The day had arrived, they had an opening on a tour and I had been selected to go. I was quite literally jumping up and down when I heard, this was the most exciting moment of the summer.
Kaktovik
The flight from Deadhorse to Kaktovik was leaving at 10, I rushed to clean up at work and shower before heading out. I had barely slept the night before I was so excited. I had been looking forward to this all summer, it was hard to believe the day was actually here. As I boarded the small plane I felt the exhaustion set in, I had been up since 5 pm the day before. It was only a 45-minute flight but I managed to squeeze in a quick 15-minute nap hopefully that would keep me going all day.
We landed in Kaktovik about 11:30. The airport if you can even call it that was just a landing strip with a fence around it. No security, no terminals I didn’t even see a control tower, definitely the weirdest airport I’ve been to so far.
Kaktovik is a small village on Barter Island. The village is located in the northwest corner of Alaska, only 90 miles west of the Canadian border. According to the 2015 census, there are 262 residents of Kaktovik. Driving through the village it seems hard to believe that many people live there. Many of the houses seem to be in desperate need of repair. The village was eerily quiet, we saw no signs of life. The thick fog made it feel that much creepier, where was everyone?
Our first stop was the Marshall Inn for lunch. The lunch spread wasn’t anything to brag about, just burgers and fries. I talked to the cook a bit, he actually offered me a job for next season but I’m pretty sure that was mainly because I was a woman haha. I’m sure in a small village like that you know your options for a spouse pretty early on so any chance to bring someone new into the mix is welcome. I took the card but figured that was probably not a good position to put myself into, my family had freaked out enough about me working in Deadhorse.
Polar Bear Tour
Finally, it was time for the tour!!! The tour was actually done by Keitel and his son Martin, the dog mushers that had stayed with us when I first started at the camp. We drove down to the beach where the boat was. It was a small fishing boat with a very small enclosed cabin.
There were 5 other guests on the tour, a mother and daughter from Ohio, a couple from Alaska and a woman from Michigan. Everyone seemed just as excited as I was beside the only guy on the tour. He honestly seemed bored, like he couldn’t care less about seeing the Polar Bears which I found insulting.
Once we were all settled on the boat we took off across the ocean, the boat was docked in a small inlet with lots of sandbars around. We headed for the one directly across from us, and there he was my first Polar Bear.
First Polar Bear Sighting
I was in shock, I was really looking at a wild Polar Bear. I started to tear up, this couldn’t really be happening. Someone pinch me I must be dreaming. I was so enthralled with the first Polar Bear that I didn’t even notice the 2nd on the same sandbar! 2 Polar Bears at once?!
The bears were just hanging out sleeping, the sound of the boat woke one of them so he stood up. I couldn’t believe how large he was. Male Polar Bears can be up 5 feet tall when standing on all fours. That’s nearly as tall as me!
The Polar Bears didn’t seem to be afraid of us, they were barely even curious about us. Martin told us that most of the bears we would see had been coming to Kektovik for years therefore they were fairly used to people and boats. We watched the 2 Polar Bears for 10 or 15 minutes before Martin told us we were going to go find some other bears, ok if we must.
A short boat ride later we saw some more bears off in distance. I thought we were going to miss them as Martin kept on driving right by them. Little did I know he was just taking us to a better viewpoint. All of a sudden there were 5 bears around us, 3 of which were cubs. All my dreams were coming true, here I was looking at Polar Bear cubs. I was overcome with emotion, seeing wild Polar Bears truly was a once in a lifetime experience, one that I will never forget.
Polar Bear Cubs
Off to the left of the boat was a mother Polar Bear with 2 cubs. The cubs were too large to of been born this year they must have been from last year. All three of the bears were sleeping when we pulled up, they lifted their heads to check out the sound. 1 of the cubs decided this was the perfect opportunity to put on a show.
The cub came right down to the shore of the little sandbar to check us out. The cub was curious about us and almost playful in his/her response to us. The cub seemed to want a better look to see what we were all about.
To the right of us was a mother with a tiny little cub, definitely born this year. The mother was once again uninterested in our arrival and quickly went back to her snooze. The cub watched us for a while before decided to venture closer. The cub kept looking back to its mother almost as if it was waiting to be scolded by the mother.
The baby came right up to the shore maybe 15 feet from us. The baby kept looking at the water then at us and back to mom almost as if it was considering going for a swim to get a closer look at the strange creatures ogling it. In the end, the baby decided not to go for a swim which was probably for the best I don’t think the mother would have liked that and I really didn’t want to get eaten by a Polar Bear.
When I looked back to the left the club had started to roll around on its back, belly up legs in the air. I couldn’t take the cuteness, at that moment I was as happy as I’ve ever been. There are several moments that stick out to me as highlights in my life this is definitely one of the top 5. The rest of the world had melted away, it was just me and a handful of Polar Bears.
That’s when I noticed that the rest of my tour group had gone inside, they weren’t paying attention to the polar bears they were talking about where they grew up. Who the hell cares?! I couldn’t believe how unmoved they were at this moment. Apparently, 20 minutes of Polar Bear watching was enough for them. I’ll never understand people.
I’ll let my photos tell the rest of the story after all a picture is worth a thousand words.
This tiny little first-year cub was basically a model.
When you can’t help but annoy your sleeping sibling…
I could have spent a week watching them and it still wouldn’t have been enough time eventually the tour had to come to an end. The 3 hours flew by, I hadn’t expected to see half as many bears as we had. I felt beyond lucky, seeing Polar Bears was worth spending a summer in the arctic 1000X over.
In total, we saw at least 15 Polar Bears that day. In the image below there are 7 Polar Bears, it is incredibly rare to see so many at one time. Polar Bears are typically solitary creatures but desperate times call for desperate measures.
How to Book a Polar Bear Tour
Understandably so I’m sure you now want to see Polar Bears for yourself! Well you have 2 options you can work at Deadhorse Camp for the summer as I did, or you can book a tour. Booking a tour is probably more doable for most, but be prepared it does come with a hefty price tag.
Polar Bear tours start the end of August and continue for a full month. They do book up pretty quickly so I would recommend planning well in advance! The tour is an all day long event but weather permitting you will be back in Fairbanks by 7 pm. They are all small group tours, no more than 6 people per tour which makes it a very intimate experience.
Now for the real determining factor, how much does it cost? Well as of 2019 the price is $1,989 USD. This is actually down about $500 USD since 2017 if that makes you feel any better. If the price tag didn’t scare you away check out more info and find out how to book here.
Later that Night…
I had planned on going to bed as soon as I checked into Sven’s Hostel but as I was checking in I saw a former coworker Jeremy. He was working at Deadhorse when I had first gotten up there and now worked at Coldfoot Camp.
We ended up drinking together all night, we got along really well. He was a couple of years older than I was, a little rough around the edges but a really nice guy. His sense of humor matched well with mine, after several drinks I was definitely considering sleeping with him.
It had been A LONG time, cobwebs were forming! The only thing that stopped me was his questionable hygiene, he never smelled but when we worked together I also never saw him shower. I was getting desperate but not that desperate.
Why Kektovik
You may be wondering why so many Polar Bears come to Kaktovik, a lot of it is just because of its location however there is one other major reason that draws them in. This is a fairly controversial subject, which I am hesitant to talk about seeing how I myself have mixed feelings on the subject. Kaktovik population is 88% Iñupiat which means the village participates in whaling.
The village is allowed 1 whale per season, 2 whales a year. The Polar Bears have learned this over the years and come to wait for the whale scrapes. Do I love the idea of whaling? Absolutely not however talking to the people in this village I do believe the people rely heavily on this tradition.
PWhen the village gets a whale they break it down as quickly as possible bringing the parts of the whale they will not use to the other side of the island. The Polar Bears go to what is referred to as the boneyard and consume the unused parts of the whale. I understand many people may be against this practice, I do not disagree with your opinions. I try to remove my personal opinions on cultural traditions when traveling in order to be open to learning about it. Below are pictures of the whale bones, I put them at the end so people who would prefer not to see them can easily do that.
