Churchill, Manitoba Tundra Buggy Excursion

Our final morning in Churchill was September 6, 2024. We were driven on a bus for about 30 minutes out to the tundra buggy parking area. These buggies are very large with giant wheels. There is even a stove on board for heat during the colder part of the season. We didn't need the heat as we had another beautiful day. Our mission was to find more polar bears and whatever else we could find.

Kevin and Evelyn in front of tundra buggy

Our guides Kelly and Joe in front of tundra buggy

The tour was a total of over three hours. Our flight had been delayed, so we got to stay out a bit longer than planned. For the first hour or so, we didn't see much. The scenery was beautiful, though.

Then we saw this beautiful eagle.

One of our fellow tour participants then spotted what she thought was a bear. Everyone in the buggy was constantly looking for bears, and it finally paid off. It turns out there were two of them. Most likely a mother and her cub from last year. As you can see from all the white rocks lying around, it's hard to spot a bear.

We also saw these Ptarmigan birds which are commonly known as prairie chickens and this Merlin falcon.

It was time to end our tour and get back on the bus. It was a great tour, and we were lucky to see some wildlife. But, the adventure wasn't over. On the way back on the bus, we saw two more bears!! This one was huge. He must have noticed us stopping to look at him, because he moved off into the woods.

Then as we were driving along the coast of the Hudson Bay, we spotted this guy in the fireweed. Fireweed is a beautiful wild plant that grows all over the north in the summer. It was mostly done blooming by the time we arrived, but there were a few plants still blooming. How kind of the bear to pose for us in the fireweed.

We had another delicious lunch at the lodge, and then headed to the airport for our flight back to Winnipeg. I was originally a bit hesitant to book this tour because it was quite expensive. However, I'm so glad I did. It was truly a trip of a lifetime, and we were so fortunate to see as much as we did. This adventure will go down as one of the most memorable trips we've ever been on. Worth every penny!!!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Churchill, Manitoba Museum and Dog Mushing

Our fourth day of the trip included a trip to the Parks Canada Museum which is housed in the remodeled train station. 

There are a lot of interesting displays in the museum, including quite a few of the local animals.

This display of a polar bear den looked very much like the real one we saw except this one had a polar bear in it!

Caribou travel through this part of Canada, however they have a large area they cover. So, some years there are lots of them, and some years they travel a different route. Caribou and reindeer are the same animal, just depends on what part of the world you are in as to what they are called.

As you can imagine, there were several displays about polar bears.

We did not see any live snow foxes in Churchill; that would have been a bonus. There were fur pelts of some of the animals found in Churchill available to touch at the museum. The fox fur is so soft!

We were treated to a very interesting presentation by a Parks Canada representative. He taught us about how this area was discovered, and the history of the Hudson Bay Company. It was founded in 1670 and is still in business today. The company started as a fur trading business, but has found a way to reinvent itself many times. They no longer sell furs, but they still sell their famous wool blankets.

That evening we were taken to the home and kennels of dog musher, David Daley. He is quite famous in this part of the world as a dog musher, advocate for the dogs and dog sled racing, and a representative of his native people, the Metis. He was very passionate about all of these subjects, and it was super interesting to listen to him.

He is the founder of the Churchill to Winnipeg race as well as the Hudson Bay Quest race. He runs the tours to feed his dogs, as he says. During Covid, many dog mushers could not afford to feed their dogs. Dave rescued about 50 dogs during that time. Since then, he is not breeding the dogs, just taking care of the ones he already has. 

We were treated to a fun ride on his summer sled on wheels. The dogs were so excited to get to work.

During Covid, he and his family (including some of his employees) were out of work. As they had time on their hands, he taught them how to trap and they built this log cabin outhouse, complete with a woodburning stove. He joked it was the most luxurious outhouse in Canada.

Another fun and interesting day in Churchill. Tomorrow we have one more adventure before we head back to Winnipeg.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Churchill, Manitoba Polar Bear Helicopter Tour

We had now seen two of the three advertised adventures on this trip. We still needed to see some polar bears. On our third day, we were treated to a helicopter tour in search of those bears. During the summer, the bears are spread out all over this northern area of Manitoba. As winter gets closer, they migrate closer together and head out onto the ice flows to hunt seals. There are tours later in the season focusing mainly on the bears and northern lights. I chose this time to tour because the beluga whales were also still here. 

Our pilot, Marcel

Neither of us had ever been in a helicopter before. The pilot asked if anyone wanted the front seat, and I had my hand up immediately. Kevin and another man were in the back seat. The rest of our group were in other choppers. It was a rather windy day, but the trip was actually quite smooth. Our first stop was to see a polar bear den. As we were approaching, I saw my first polar bear (or at least a polar bear shaped pond)!

Our pilot circled the area before landing making sure there were no bears in the area. He also had a shotgun with him as we got out and walked to the den. They keep a covering of orange snow fence material over the den. If that's been moved, they know a bear may be inside. The pilot crawled into the den to show us how big it is. Not very big for a mama bear and her cubs. 

There were lots of wild blueberry plants. I tried some, and they were quite tasty. The bears eat these during their waking hibernation time in the summer. 

The ground was very marshy and squishy, but our feet didn't get wet. This area is called taiga, the border before the tundra. Tundra doesn't have any trees. Taiga has mainly spruce trees, but they are rather scrawny. Most of them only have needles on one side, as wind strips them on their north sides.

Back up in the air, we were flying over some incredible scenery. I've never seen this type of landscape. But, still no bears.

As we approached, the coastline of the Hudson Bay, our pilot started pointing out some bears. What, where??? They were very hard to see. There were lots of white rocks along the shore. He did circle around, but by the time I saw them, we were moving on. I wish he would have hovered or circled several times. I did get a few pictures. Again, group members shared their pictures. It was so great to have several people taking pictures of the same scenes, so we could share the best of them with each other. I saw everything in these photos, but I didn't take them all. Luckily, this was not the only time we would see bears. We had one more adventure that took us to bears coming up!

As we headed back, we flew over this rusty shipwreck. The Ithaka was a cargo ship caught in a storm with 80 mile an hour winds in September of 1960. The captain dropped anchor, but the chain snapped, and the rudder was torn off. The ship ran aground, and the bottom was ripped off. It was determined to be a total loss, and has been sitting out there ever since. At low tide, you can walk to it. 

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Churchill, Manitoba Northern Lights

This tour to Churchill advertised three great adventures. We had already seen the amazing beluga whales. Now we were looking forward to seeing northern lights and polar bears. Our first two nights were cloudy, so we never got a call for northern lights viewing. We had been told that if they are out, we would get a call in our room, and to be ready in the lobby in five minutes.

Our third night, the call came at 11 pm. We hurriedly dressed, and were in the lobby on time. Our group consisted of 29 travelers, and all of us were there. We were loaded into two vans, and headed out of town to find dark skies and northern lights. The next night the call came again, but at 12:45 am. Only 15 of us ventured out that second night. 

Neither of us have ever seen the aurora borealis live. The pictures I've seen were always very vibrant colors, mostly green. I'm not complaining in the least, but what we saw was not what the pictures looked like. What we actually saw looked like wisps of white smoke going vertically and horizontally across different parts of the sky with faint green and red colors in them. Still very cool!! I'm told by our friends who live in Canada that the bright, vibrant colors are much more prevalent in the cold, crisp winter skies. 

Surprisingly, the colors were more visible in the photos than to the naked eye. Some of our group members had much better camera equipment than others, and they were kind enough to share their photos with the group. Below are a lot of photos taken of the lights by myself and others in the group. Enjoy!!

This wispy white with a little color is mainly what we saw with the naked eye.

A gal in our group had a camera where she could take my picture. Love it!!

That's our guide, Joe, on the right with his polar bear gun watching out for us

Someone in our group put together these collages

Someone also was able to blend the lights with the stars. How cool is that!!!!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one! (We definitely were reaching for the stars on this trip!!)