Visiting Barter Island: How to See Polar Bears In Alaska

When I realized my next trip would be to Alaska, one thought immediately came to mind…polar bears in Alaska..or more specifically polar bears in Barter Island. 

Polar bears have been on the list of threatened species since 2008, and with global warming not slowing down anytime soon, I figured my time may be limited to see these bears. With a quick Google search, we found that it was in fact possible to see polar bears in Alaska, in a super remote region called Barter Island. So we would be heading to the only village on the island, Kaktovik, which makes up a total area of 1 square mile.

Getting to Barter Island Alaska

Getting to Barter Island involved a series of not-so-cheap flights. I’d be lying if I said this didn’t wildly increase our budget for Alaska, but we’d do anything to see the bears.

Our adventure began in Anchorage. From there, we flew to Deadhourse, Alaska which is a remote oil rigging destination and also the worst place I’ve ever had a layover.

Luckily we were only in Deadhorse for a few hours and before we knew it, we were finally landing on a gravel runway in a tiny plane with 6 other people. At last, we were on Barter Island.

There was no airport. After we deplaned, the next step was to board a bright blue school bus that was on the gravel to pick up visitors. The woman driving the schoolbus dropped us off at one of the two available hotels.

Our Hotel on Barter Island

The bus pulled up to a series of structures haphazardly attached. We were staying at Waldos, a “hotel” that appeared to be a mixture of old trailors and whatever other scraps were left on the island. But hell, if you’re visiting somewhere as remote as Barter Island, you don’t expect luxury. We just landed on a gravel runway for god sakes. And atleast we had unlimited food. And coffee.

While we were unboarding the school bus for Waldos, one of the locals advised us not to leave the hotel before our polar bear tour the next day, as polar bears on Barter Island do come into town and could be dangerous. AKA don’t leave or you may get eaten.

This means we’d be spending our whole first day inside Waldos. How lucky were we!

The Polar Bear Tour

After a long day of rest (or eating), our polar bear tour started the next morning. Our guide picked us up at Waldos in an old, beat up pick up truck. We drove to the shoreline and boarded the boat we’d be on for the day. Luckily the tour guide had parkas for us to wear, since it can get a little cold on the water (and a parka for the arctic doesn’t exactly fit well inside luggage). We went with the tour company Akook Arctic Adventures.

I never thought I’d ever get a chance in this life to see a polar bear in it’s natural habitat. No matter how many times you see an animal at the Zoo, it is completely different seeing it in real life. Polar bears are massive animals, and after I saw one walking towards us, I was happy I obeyed the locals and stayed inside the hotel the night before.

The Climate in Barter Island

As excited as I was to see the bears, I also couldn’t ignore how hot and uncomfortable they were by the abnormal climate. When you think of polar bears, you think of them on ice, not sprawled out on hot rocks on a sunny day. It was clear that the polar bears on Barter Island were over heated by the way they were laying around. Our local guide also explained that their natural food source is taken away until winter (when the ice reappears). Luckily, these bears are better off than polar bears in other areas of the world because they are able to eat the left over whale carcuses left behind by the villagers. Due to it’s isolation, the village has maintained it’s Eskimo traditions and depends on caribou and whale as food sources. A picture of the enormous carcuss is below.

I’m happy that we chose Akook Arctic Adventures for our tour. Not only was he a local and super knowledgable about the region, but he obeyed laws set in place for the protection of the polar bears and respected their space. I hope that future tour operators in this area do the same, as I can see it gaining popularity in the future.

I used my Sony a6000 for these shots, along with a 100-400 mm lens that I rented (yes, you can actually rent expensive lenses instead of buying them!)

After our tour, we flew out of Barter Island in the afternoon. We had to be careful making our flight since they sometimes take off without visitors and don’t follow a strict time schedule. Althought we reminded the bus driver of our flight 3 times, she still forgot us on the way to the runway and we had to hitch a ride with a local!

Have any questions on visiting Barter Island to see the polar bears in Alaska? Feel free to ask away!

& if you’re interested in other bear tours in Alaska, read about the brown bear tour in Lake Clark National Park here.