Baffin Island: Monumental Island

Monumental Island is a single piece of a plateaued rock rising from the ocean in the middle of the Davis Strait between Nunavut and Greenland. It’s a magnet for icebergs that get stuck in its shoals and polar bears that stay here in the summer waiting for the ice to re-form. Circumnavigating the island in inflatable zodiac boats (with rough swells at times), we counted 3 polar bears with one of them engaging in an intense stare down. And if you got tired of polar bears – just turning the other way presented spectacular massive deep blue icebergs. This was monumental pun intended)!