Waldo Arms in Kaktovik: Polar Bear Heaven
Success breeds success. As our top brass became experts on three of the four bears of the Western Hemisphere, there was only one left, the Polar Bear. Our expertise with American Black Bears in three U.S. states led us to protect Brown Bears in Alaska at what we now call Brown Bear Bay. Our newfound understanding of Black Bears inspired us to search for the best place to see and protect Spectacled Bears, the only bear species in South America. Soon after that, we discovered Bear Canyon in Ecuador.
Based on our success with those three bear species, a leading bear guide in Alaska recommended Charles Munn as the right person to be entrusted with the right to operate the original and often only lodging in the world’s finest place for observing Polar Bears: the Native Village of Kaktovik on the shores of the Arctic Ocean on the north coast of Alaska.
The founder and long-time owner of Waldo Arms was the famously-selfless hero bush plane pilot and irrepressible adventurer, Walt Audi, who unfortunately left this Earth late in 2025. Walt was from the lower 48, but worked for the military in the Far North, and then left the military and became an amazingly-accomplished and much-beloved bush pilot based in Kaktovik.
Walt built his small hotel in the 1970’s and improved, enlarged, and remodelled it over the decades. When the hero pilot “hung up his wings” and went south to Arizona for medical treatment, his family reached out to look for a manager to carry on the tradition. The family selected Charles based on his dual careers in wildlife conservation and ecotourism.
Charles’s team has run Waldo Arms since October 2025 and looks forward to a bright future for wildlife tourism in that hamlet. The lodge is very simple, with eight double-occupancy guest rooms, a spacious shared bathroom with hot showers, and a roomy restaurant serving varied classic and also international cuisine.
Since January 2026, Waldo Arms has been the only lodge or hotel in the town, which itself is only 5 by 8 blocks in size, with a total population of 240, 95% of which are indigenous “Iñupiat” Natives.
How could Kaktovik be the finest location on the planet to watch Polar Bears? Well, because it is. Why? Because every September, the village legally and sustainably hunts three massive Bowhead Whales just offshore and tows them back to the beach only a five-minute drive from the village. Then the villagers remove almost all useful fat and meat from the carcasses for their own traditional consumption (a 12,000-year-old tradition). At that point, there still is a lot of meat left on the bones, and 20 to 30 peaceful Polar Bears move in and enjoy feasting on the leftovers for six weeks or more. This sustainable, traditional harvest offers the bears a lifeline during September, October, and November, the months that they are desperately waiting for the sea ice to form again. Many other Polar Bears are losing more weight during those months, but the bears in Kaktovik are fat and happy.
What makes the Polar Bear watching so outstanding at Kaktovik is that it is the only place in the world where that beleaguered species is doing very well at a location that one can actually get to. There is no other place on Earth where you can observe Polar Bears of all ages and sexes in such large numbers in one spot, and all remarkably polite with one another.
Professional wildlife photographers who have been to each of the best Polar Bear locations on Earth six to ten times have pronounced Kaktovik as by far the best of them all.
Stay in touch with SouthWild about how to visit Kaktovik when the Polar Bear viewing season opens. It is one amazing show!
