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| Polar Bear Viewing in Northern Canada’s Newest National Park |
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| Sila Lodge – Wager Bay |
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Itinerary |
| Day 01 - 12 |
Sila Lodge
It is located on Wager Bay just 50 miles south of the Arctic Circle in the newly created Nunavut Territory - was built by three Inuit families as a comfortable base from which to enjoy wildlife on land and water. The presence of a wide variety of wildlife makes Wager Bay an photography and naturalist’s paradise. Picture caribou grazing in the flats below the lodge’s dining room windows, Arctic ground squirrels playing hide and seek with curious guests, polar bears on the shore taking an afternoon swim or sunning themselves, shore birds and peregrine falcons teaching their young to fly. All of this coupled with colorful flora and exciting archaeological sites makes Sila Lodge on Wager Bay a truly unique summer destination. Your time at Sila Lodge will be spent hiking and on boat tours, providing you with the opportunity to view and photograph wildlife at its best. By boat, we’ll search for ringed and bearded seals and watch for polar bears. On land, we can hope to see barren ground caribou, Arctic hare, peregrine falcon, rough-legged hawk, guillemot, Pacific loons, Thayer’s gull, and much more. Depending on the season, tundra flowers may be starting their annual show or turning to fall colors; many of the bird species may be beginning nesting activities or rearing their chicks.
Ancient Inuit and pre-Inuit tent rings abound in this area, evidence that earlier cultures found the local wildlife as irresistible and attractive as you will! Churchill is known for its fantastic summer wildlife. Our Wager Bay trips also include a stop in Churchill for three nights Experience the amazing sight of over 3,000 beluga whales as they gather in the Churchill River. Our famous Tundra Buggy will take you on a summer adventure where you will see the tundra covered with wildflowers, many bird species, Arctic fox dens and with any luck, a polar bear. |
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| Rates & Dates |
| 2004/2005 |
Rates, Dates & Itinerary on Request |
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About Ukkusiksilak National Park
It is a place that appears almost untouched by time or humans, and the Canadian government is taking steps to ensure it stays that way. Sometime this year, Wager Bay, Nunavut, and most of the pristine watershed that surrounds it, will become Canada’s newest national park. Ukkusiksalik (oo-koo-sik-sah-lik)—Inuktitut for ‘the place where there is stone that can be used to carve pots and oil lamps’—will protect more than 23,000 square kilometres of land and water, and the unique ecosystem that has evolved there.
Aside from Inuit who visit the area to hunt and fish, few people are fortunate enough to see the wonders of this remote area. Lying only 65 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, Wager Bay stretches 200 kilometres westward from Hudson Bay, opposite Southampton Island. The area teems with life. An inland sea, Wager Bay is home to marine animals including beluga whales, ringed and bearded seals, and polar bears. Peregrine falcons raise their chicks on the rocky cliffs rising from the water. Shorebirds skitter across mud flats drowned and exposed by eight-metre tides, while river otters and Arctic char roam the rivers. From nesting sites near seasonal ponds drift the unmistakable cries of red-throated loons and the rattling calls of sandhill cranes, accompanied by the whining drone of mosquitoes and flies. Caribou, muskox, and Arctic hare graze on the tundra surrounding the bay. They, in turn, provide food for the wolves, wolverines, red foxes, and Arctic foxes that prowl the terrain.
This Inuit tent ring near Sila Lodge is one of over 500 known archaeological sites in Wager Bay.
It is a place that appears almost untouched by time or humans, and the Canadian government is taking steps to ensure it stays that way. Sometime this year, Wager Bay, Nunavut, and most of the pristine watershed that surrounds it, will become Canada’s newest national park. Ukkusiksalik (oo-koo-sik-sah-lik)—Inuktitut for ‘the place where there is stone that can be used to carve pots and oil lamps’—will protect more than 23,000 square kilometres of land and water, and the unique ecosystem that has evolved there.
Aside from Inuit who visit the area to hunt and fish, few people are fortunate enough to see the wonders of this remote area. Lying only 65 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, Wager Bay stretches 200 kilometres westward from Hudson Bay, opposite Southampton Island. The area teems with life. An inland sea, Wager Bay is home to marine animals including beluga whales, ringed and bearded seals, and polar bears. Peregrine falcons raise their chicks on the rocky cliffs rising from the water. Shorebirds skitter across mud flats drowned and exposed by eight-metre tides, while river otters and Arctic char roam the rivers. From nesting sites near seasonal ponds drift the unmistakable cries of red-throated loons and the rattling calls of sandhill cranes, accompanied by the whining drone of mosquitoes and flies. Caribou, muskox, and Arctic hare graze on the tundra surrounding the bay. They, in turn, provide food for the wolves, wolverines, red foxes, and Arctic foxes that prowl the terrain.
This Inuit tent ring near Sila Lodge is one of over 500 known archaeological sites in Wager Bay.
The landscape, scoured down to the bone by glaciers that finally retreated less than 10,000 years ago, is an ancient one. The striking patterns of rocks more than two billion years old divulge a complicated history of repeated heating and melting. Wavy bands of dark and light minerals writhe over boulders left behind by glaciers. Pink rock envelops chunks of black stone, telling of a time when hot magma shattered and partially devoured existing rock. Over these primeval chronicles, multicoloured lichens, which may only grow three centimetres in a hundred years, painstakingly record a newer story.
More than one hundred plant species flourish in Wager Bay’s harsh climate, many blooming with brilliant abandon during the brief summer. Examining most of these hardy gems requires ‘belly botany,’ as they are small and low growing. In a gentler climate, birch trees more than one hundred years old would tower overhead. Here they hug the ground, kept prostrate by the relentless pruning of wind-driven ice crystals.
With Wager Bay’s many natural wonders, it comes as no surprise that ecotourists from around the world are drawn to the area. Each year during July and August, about 300 people make the 90-minute Twin Otter trip from Baker Lake, NU, to the gravel landing strip of Sila Lodge at the west end of the bay. Built in 1987 by three Inuit families, Sila offers accommodation, meals, and activities, including guided walks to explore the landscape. These amenities are a pleasant bonus for most visitors, who make the trip with one great wish: to see polar bears in their natural habitat.
When weather and tide permit, Sila’s 27-foot boat transports visitors into the polar bear’s world and lets them observe the bears safely. Each journey out into the bay offers something different. Bears may be spied hunting on pack ice, dog-paddling along in the incredibly clear water, or contentedly napping on rocky islands and shores. Mothers with cubs are often seen travelling along the southwest side of the bay.
Each encounter offers new insight into the polar bear’s way of life. For instance, having struggled to haul myself out of a swimming pool without using a ladder, I have watched in awe as a swimming bear effortlessly levered itself up onto a slippery, rocking ice floe and ambled away. Only by watching these powerful predators in the environment that shaped them does one begin to understand how truly remarkable they are. Bypassed by ‘progress,’ Wager Bay offers an unparalleled chance to see polar bears for what they are: part of the intricate tangle of interwoven realities that allows life to exist in this unforgiving place. Hopefully, the creation of Ukkusiksalik National Park will give future generations the same privilege. |
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