Polar Bears, Beluga Whales and Northern Lights in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada

I didn't hear so close. It's so weird, like... One thousand kilometers north of Winnipeg, Manitoba, on the shore of Hudson Bay, lies the tiny frontier town of Churchill. It's just a few degrees south of the Arctic Circle, sitting where the boreal forest ends and the Arctic tundra begins. Churchill is home to 700 people, and during peak polar bear season, in October and November, there are more polar bears than that. They pass through town on an ancient migration route that takes them to the mouth of the Churchill River, where the Hudson Bay freezes first, allowing the bears early access to the sea ice so they can hunt for seals. When the ice breaks up in the spring, the bears come back to shore and laze about Manitoba's coastline until the next freeze. This same Churchill River also attracts thousands of beluga whales each summer, who come to feed, mate, and give birth. The whales are not just easy to spot, they're curious about humans, meaning you don't need to look for them. They will look for you. And being located at 58 degrees north, Churchill is inside the auroral oval and far from any light pollution. This makes it a great place to spot the aurora borealis, or northern lights. August is the only time of year when it's possible to spot the Churchill trifecta. It's end of season for beluga whales, shoulder season for the polar bears, and the very start of the season for the northern lights. Our goal was to see all three over the course of one week. But while we went to Churchill for the natural attractions, we came away with an appreciation for the history, the culture, and the people of this remote outpost. There are no roads into Churchill. You can get there on a 48-hour long train ride, or a two-hour flight on a small regional airline called Calm Air, both departing from Winnipeg. We chose the flight and landed at Churchill Airport with high hopes. We had booked our week's stay at the Polar Inn, and the owner, Dwight, met us at the airport in one of the ubiquitous minibuses that are constantly shuttling visitors around town. Hey guys, welcome to Churchill! You guys want a date here? So babes, here we are. The Polar Inn! She did say two when I checked in, they were down to one TV channel because the cable company in town closed in December, so... Cheapers, really? We settled in at the hotel and then headed out for a walk around town to get the lay of the land and pick up some supplies at the Northern Store, a one-stop shop for everything from groceries to alcohol to appliances to snowmobiles and ATVs, the latter being a very popular means of transport here. Grocery prices are sky high, as you'd expect when everything needs to be shipped in, though the government subsidizes many of the essentials. I didn't think, just again, the whole beluga thing is not so... We were super excited about it, we just didn't think there'd be so many of them and it's that easy to spot them. Because they even say, like, oh, it's not guaranteed to see them when you go to... You go for two hours in a Zodiac and you don't see a beluga? Something's wrong. There's something wrong with you. At least at this time of year. We were now in bear country and there was no shortage of reminders, from signage at the airport to safety brochures to the omnipresent Polar Bear Alert program trucks that patrol the town and use crackers and rubber bullets to drive away any bears who venture too close. Repeat offenders are humanely trapped and then taken to a holding facility from which they're airlifted once the sea ice forms. There is also a bear siren that goes off in town each night at 10pm as an unofficial curfew reminder that the safest place to be after dark is indoors. There it is, there goes the bear siren. Our first excursion took us down to the seaport. Sea North Tours, which operates out of the Polar Inn, offers several different trips at both high and low tides. We started out with a Zodiac tour of the river estuary to get closer to the whales. Are you all set? Yes. Do you feel very buoyant? So, Ella, over there, James, Remy, Alex, Tori. So any questions whatsoever, it does not matter what they are, we are going to do our absolute best to answer them. Parks Canada did shut down Prince of Wales Fort, so we're all doing the estuary tour today. Two hours on the water. We're going to go out and see what we can find. Obviously, we do not have the most ideal conditions. The wind is kind of down for now, so that's a good thing, but we got some fog that rolled in. So we're going to, most likely the majority of us are going to be all sticking together within visual distance of all of our boats. Coming in off the water, we met up with Alex, who operates his own tour company, Discover Churchill, in addition to working as a guide for Sea North. We had booked several excursions with Alex for later in the week, including a spot on his Northern Lights tour call list if the proper conditions prevailed. Clear sky around Churchill yesterday, but there's no Northern Lights light at all. I was watching. What does the rest of the week look like? Hard to say. The forecast has been changing so much. Yeah. If there's clear skies, there's a good chance of seeing them. Yeah. Alright, sounds good. You guys are here for a while, I'm sure there's going to be a change. Yeah, we're here until Saturday. After changing out of our wet things, we walked down to the Lazy Bear Café for a hot drink to warm up and to sample some regional foods. Finally, I'm trying artichoke. Are you excited? Bison? Who said it's got Big Mac sauce on it? I want to hear how the bison is. The next morning, we had reserved seats on a Tundra Buggy excursion with Frontiers North. We met up with our guide, Jim, at 58 North, and were shuttled along the coast out of town to the Tundra Buggy dock. Tundra Buggies are huge all-terrain vehicles that can traverse the Arctic ground. Giant tires elevate passengers safely above a polar bear's reach. They drive on a network of off-road trails through the Churchill Wildlife Management Area. Roads that are the legacy of Canadian and American military forces who were active in Churchill during the Cold War and Red. Let's do two on each side. Split the difference. The resulting ride is something like a cross between a tank and a monster truck. If you see something, holler. I know where most of the boulder bears or polar rocks are, and they don't move until the next glaciation. When do we get close to it? The noise down. Straight ahead right now. Okay, I see it now. Straight, right over his head. He doesn't have a habit of doing this. It's probably just over the rocks. Oh, that's a nice pose. He looks at us. Maybe she's walking. I can see it. Where do you see it? Straight ahead. Oh, I see it now. Oh, big one. Huge one. Go straight to the end of the bush. You see a head come up. She's thinking about those leaves. We headed over to the Eatsanitak Museum, which has a huge collection of Inuit art made of ivory, soapstone, and whale bone, as well as exhibits about the local wildlife. That's cool. Some of it is like 4,000 years old. Me and Liam just ate this guy the other day. Right? Now it makes sense why he was a little bit greasy. Oh, goodness. That is, isn't it? That is just a giant walrus head. Wow. Where's my char? That's true. No chicken fingers, please. Sorry, where's the char? That? Oh, on the backboard there. Where's my Arctic char? And we stopped in at the Parks Canada Visitor Centre, located inside the train station. It's full of artifacts from Prince of Wales Fort and depictions of early life in northern Manitoba. You've still got a little bit of growing to do to catch up to him. I think you're going to catch him, buddy. He's pretty big. Rawr. You go in the front with your camera stuff. And then the protection here, I'm not going to inadvertently kick something and set it off? No, it's not loaded right now. Alright. But this is where the term riding shotgun comes in. I guess that makes sense. Alex came to pick us up for one of his town and area tours. It's really not safe to wander outside of town in bear country on your own. So this tour is a great way to see some of the local, cultural and historical sites and watch for wildlife along the way. Our first stop was at Miss Piggy, a cargo plane full of junk food that crashed shortly after takeoff in 1979. Any bears in there? Don't see any. All of the crew survived. Do I see a bear? I don't know. Do you? Oh, yeah. Oh, right there. There's a bear. Where? See these two little pine trees, the two little ones? Right in between them? Right in between them. That's not a bear. That's a bear. Oh, it just moved. That's a bear. You guys want to head over? Yep. He's right there. I can just see his butt right there. Scare a troll. You can just stay close over here, but at least... Do I want to get out of the vehicle? You don't want to get out of the vehicle. You are more expendable than I. That is true. Okay. I'll leave my door open, but... Yeah, just leave your door open, and then don't venture too far away. Yeah, for sure. I can't see him at all anymore. That is okay by me. Our next stop was at the golf balls, as they are commonly known. Though really, it's an old Cold War-era radar facility that was used to track launches from a nearby rocket range. Well, this is kind of eerie. It is. It's pretty interesting to think, you know, what this was like when it was actually operational, and the research that they were doing here. It's part of the joint American-Canadian military infrastructure that was once used to keep a suspicious eye on the Soviet Union from the north. When the Cold War thawed, the facilities were kept in use for a period of time to fire rockets into the upper atmosphere to study aurora activity. I know which way to go. Do you know which way to go? What is that, like half a kilometer? We ended the day's tour at the MV Ithaca, a shipwreck that is accessible by foot during low tide. Only after scouting the area for polar bears, of course. Got a little horizon line going. Next up, stand-up paddle boarding with the beluga whales and an 8mm wetsuit to make it much more comfortable. Carry. Oh, okay. Sorry, this is a wet one. Okay, that's all right. It's very thick, so you'll appreciate it later. You guys look great. We booked this adventure with SUP North, which is owned and operated by Aaron Green. And the kids will tell you that it was their favorite part of the whole trip. After a brief lesson from Aaron, which even having some SUP experience we learned from, we were out on the Churchill River and surrounded by the whales. We just had a big bubble come. Oh! Right beside us. They're so close. Oh, it's right there. Oh, he's behind me. Oh my goodness. Oh, you've got one, Chad. There's one right on your tail, Chad. Yeah. That's awesome. Really? You got a friend, Liam? Knock him off his board. Do it. Knock him off. Do you have a friend? Right there. Some friends just passed her by. Oh my goodness. She says she can do it, but... Excellent. Mallory's free. Are you going to be able to get out there, mister? Tonight's the night. I can feel it. Fingers crossed, right? It's quarter to ten. The sky is mostly clear. I'm getting ready. Tonight's the night. Mallory thinks I'm totally wrong. I think she's wrong. Tonight's the night. I'm getting ready to go. I got my hat. I got my gloves. Got my whole camera bag fired up. I've got my camera. It's set for interval shooting. I've got my timer. I've got a tripod. Liam is wearing his warm clothes. Whoops. Liam, you got your warm clothes on? No. We're getting ready to go. I think the phone is going to ring any minute. It's going to be Alex. He's going to tell us that we're going out tonight. And this is going to be the best night of our whole lives. It's a bit of a stretch. It's also a huge jinx. If that's not a jinx, I don't know what is, Mal. I'm so excited. I think tonight's the night. I really do. I am following Jimbo's advice and I am putting the energy out there. The pounds of energy Jimbo is talking about is saying, I want to see the North Lights tonight. That would be great. But if I don't, I'm just going to enjoy the beauty of Churchill tonight. It's just awesome. I came here to have a great time. The current forecast is actually 0%. But that's for like right immediately, right now. Yeah. It was like 100% before Mom did her spiel. I don't know. It just went zero. I don't think so. I think the KP goes up to 2 at midnight. So we've still got a couple hours. I'll be here in a few minutes. Oh my god, look at this. Look at it. Is this right now? This is right now. This is the live webcam. Has he got the key? I hope he's got the key. Hello. Tonight's the night. We hope. It looked like it. It does look like there's a little bit of cloud on the bay though. Yeah. So, I mean, the nice thing about photography is that we can kind of adjust the settings on our camera to let in light that the naked eye can't necessarily see. So when you're not quite sure if that's aurora over there, it's nice to sometimes take a test shot to see if it actually is aurora. And if you see green on your screen, you know it's aurora. Alex was right above the clouds. They moved in quickly and by the time we reached our first destination at the Gulf Falls, we were almost fully socked in. Though I couldn't see any traces of aurora with my naked eye, I did as Alex suggested and set up a few test shots, and they did pick up some traces of color behind the clouds. We didn't stay at the Gulf Falls too long before moving on to a second location along the coast, this time at Miss Piggy. The thought was that changing our relativity to the cloud cover might yield some better aurora viewing, and this location did improve what we could see, with a band of color visible low on the horizon where there was a gap in the clouds. Although this was a better location, Alex decided again that moving back closer to town might improve things even further, and we're lucky that he did. Our third location was I think at Isabelle Lake, and this was for sure our best location of the night. We had pretty much a full break in the clouds for some period of time, and finally got to witness a full band of aurora across the sky. I will say, it did not quite live up to my expectations, which were admittedly high. There was only a tinge of color visible to the naked eye, much less than what the camera picks up. Alex would later rate our viewing as a 3 out of 10, so while we saw the northern lights, we did not see the full spectacle that is possible. Nonetheless, we did capture some great photos, and Alex was kind enough to take some of us as well, both a close family shot as well as one from behind the scenes. We made one more stop at location number 4, Jockville. The clouds were moving in again, so we took a few last shots here before calling it a night. Alex drove us back to the hotel and dropped us off right around 3am. Thank you. We're real dog mushers here, this is our life. The next morning found us out at Wapusk Adventures Dog Sled Camp, where we met one of Canada's top dog mushers, Dave Daly, and his 36 dogs. I grew up in Churchill, I'm born and raised here, what we call Churchillians. So I'm third generation Churchill, my kids are fourth generation, and my grandchildren are fifth generation, so we have a great presence in this community. Everyone knows who we are because we have a big history here. I know a lot of people come here, and the most important question I get is, what kind of dogs are they? I go, they're sled dogs. And people go, no, no, you don't know what I mean, what mix are they? I go, they're sled dog mix. And I said, you don't understand, it took a lot of dogs to make a Labradoodle, it took a lot of dogs to make a German Shepherd, and it took a lot of, like these dogs weren't always here, they were bred to a standard. Later that day we were back out on the water with Sea North. This time we headed across the Churchill River to the Prince of Wales Fort, where our interpreter Eric gave us some of the history of the site. The fort was built in the early 1700s to protect and control the Hudson's Bay Company's interest in the local fur trade. On our return trip across the river, we took the long way round, stopping to visit some more of our beluga friends. Our guide James used a hydrophone in the water so we could eavesdrop on some of the whales' conversations that earned them the nickname Canaries of the Sea. Juvenile belugas are grey, turning white as they age, and they don't have a dorsal fin, which allows them to swim under polar ice. It's pretty amazing that they are as sociable and friendly towards humans as they are, given that Churchill had an active whaling industry here up until the 1960s. Friday was our last full day in Churchill, and we were picked up at the hotel by Stephanie, one of Discover Churchill's local guides. She took us on a second town and area tour to finish seeing the local sights, starting with a fox den on the road to the port. She's so cute. Hey foxy. That's super cool. I thought we would maybe see a tail of one slipping into the back of some trees. And we finished touring the last few sites of the Seawalls Churchill mural exhibition. Created in 2017, there are 18 murals throughout Churchill and the surrounding area, meant to educate and inspire a community to protect the oceans. But installation coincided with a year when the town fell on hard times, and the project came to mean much more than that. We were lucky enough to spot another bear on our drive around town. This one was out by the MV Ithaca. I see him walking. Stephanie gave us a lesson in the local flora. Our visit coincided with peak berry season, and all of the varieties were new to us. That's a bear berry. You try it. That's a soap one. This is the soap one? This is the soap one, yeah. This is the soap one. Like froth it up, and add sugar, put it in cream or ice cream, and it's good. Finally, we also got to visit Cape Mary, across the river from Prince of Wales Fort, and part of the Hudson's Bay Company's early fur trading post. This is fragile. Really delicate. Northern Explorer. Can't do it right now, there's something wrong. At the end of the week, we chartered one more zodiac ride, and it started out with one last bear sighting. See it? Can you spot it? No. It's past the grass, and right kind of where the rocks start, in between the two rocks, there's a white head. Is it like right in front of me? Oh yeah. There, I see him moving. Yeah, I can see his head. But the real win was with our whale sightings. We took this charter to get out of the river estuary and into Hudson Bay proper. As a result, the water was much bluer than anything we'd seen all week, and with better clarity, and the whales came out in droves. Did you get a good shot of my butt? Thank you. Okay, I'm going to try to remember the sailor's grip. Thank you. I did it, Val. Alright. Excellent. We made it back. Quick scan of the bear in the area. I don't see any bears, but you never know when one's going to pop up. On our last morning before our flight home, we had just enough time to head down to the beach for a polar dip. And that was the end of our time in Churchill. We loved this trip. Not only for the amazing wildlife that was the original reason we made the journey north, but for the spirit of the town and its people. What impressed me the most about Churchill is the pride and tenacity of its residents, who are determined to keep it on the map despite its isolation and economic hardships. Those residents include a number of eager young naturalists and outdoor enthusiasts who are laying the framework to grow Churchill's tourism industry beyond the wildlife photographers and film crews that have made up the bulk of visitors in the past. Our trip was great because of Alex and Aaron and Jim and Dave and Steph and Tori and James and Eric. I don't think I've ever visited a destination where I have felt like I got in at the grassroots level quite like this. And I hope that many more visitors are able to see Churchill as it is today. Before there are chain hotels and a beaver tails kiosk and a root store on Kelsey Boulevard. Churchill is a place unlike any other. And it deserves to stay that way.