Day 2 on the Tundra

My two cents on yesterday: Jon forgot to mention the amazing sunrise and sunset. On the flat barren tundra punctuated only by a few stunted white pine, the entire sky seems lit up by the sunrise and sunset. He also did not do justice to the Northern Lights, which were amazing. They started as barely a smoke like wisp in the distance – outshined by the airport lights in the distance and then became brighter and brighter. Like a mist or smoke they change shape from snake like to swirls and to cloud-like. Even Jon’s photos do not do this justice.

Today, it was another predawn start with breakfast at the log cabin Lazy Bear Inn. There was more cloud cover, so the sunrise was not as spectacular and we joined Brent, the Tundra Vehicle driver, for another day of polar bear sightings. We saw a lone caribou walking along and lots of polar bears. There were several sightings including two males briefly wresting, a mom and a 10 month old cub walking across the ice, a mom napping with two larger cubs, a large male sleeping with his head on his paws and a few that were curious about the Tundra Vehicles. We even got a brief sighting of an Arctic fox as it ran by. The day ended as we watched a red sunset sink below the clouds from the “machine.”
After a brief stop at the hotel, we walked to dinner (about a block) at Gypsy’s, braving the COLD temperatures and the arctic wind. Dinner was followed by a presentation by Myrtle, a 10th generation Metis woman, who told some of her stories. She makes artwork out of caribou hair, a more modern spin on the traditional caribou and moose hair tufting artwork that the Natives did. Unfortunately, our drive out to look for Northern Lights was unsuccessful so we returned to the hotel to rest up for another day.

Today’s trivia: Polar bears have black skin to help absorb any light that might reach it. The tongues are also black. The polar bear hair is actually fairly translucent and looks different depending on the light. Polar bears do not hibernate, unlike other bears; however, the pregnant females will den to give birth to 1-2 cubs in January.