Get in Touch With Your Wild Heart!

We are not a typical “polar bear tour” company, and we don’t process thousands of tourists every year. In fact there is no other outfitter in the world doing what we do. This is because our adventure tours require guiding skills that cannot be taught, but must be earned through a lifetime of commitment to the outdoors. We have pioneered the “walking safari” through bear country, and we’d like to show you that there is nothing more exciting than exploring this landscape on foot. You will be meeting the bears face to face, in their own habitat, and the encounters are so intense you will remember them for the rest of your life.

There are no other lodges along this immense stretch of coast, and you are unlikely to encounter any other human beings, besides the folks with you, during your entire week at Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge. For your own safety and the safety of the bears, we will be observing strict rules and protocol while traveling through this high density bear population. During this week, you will learn a lot about the northern environment and a lot about polar bears, both from our guides and from your encounters with these incredible animals.

This is truly an educational adventure, and there are few places left in the world where a program like this is within the realm of possibility. From July through August, the environment is constantly changing. The Arctic summer unfolds with dramatic speed, and you can almost see the season advancing by the hour, as new varieties of plants and flowers burst from the ground and different species of birds migrate through. Occasionally, huge flows of "pan ice" drift in from the north, scribing and reshaping the coast as they flow in and out with the tide. Polar bears, fresh from their winter hunting grounds out on the Bay, will explore every inch of the rich expanses of sedge grass along the coastline, hoping to find a lucky meal. If no seal carcass or dead fish can be found, the bears will graze avidly on sedge grass then curl up in a hollow and sleep, sometimes for days, conserving their energy during the summer-long fast.

You will see large, solitary adult bears every day, and there is a good likelihood of running into mothers with cubs. The high population of mothers and cubs is due to the existence of a nearby denning area – newly discovered -  where mother bears give birth to two or sometimes three tiny cubs. This means you have a better than average opportunity to observe mother bears teaching their cubs about survival. If there are many big male bears or wolves in the immediate vicinity, the mothers will feel nervous about the welfare of their cubs and move on. But if the coast is clear, you will be encountering families of bears on an almost daily basis.

You might be lucky enough to witness the adult male bears sparring, demonstrating their playful wrestling skills and establishing dominance.

Amenities & What to Bring     Trip Itinerary