Safety and camping and bears, oh my!
Questions on how to avoid bears at the campsite are the second-most popular camping searches on the Internet, right behind packing lists. So Coleman decided to head to the closest thing we could find to Yogi’s home for some answers, Yellowstone National Park.
Diana spends a lot of her life in the northern wilderness. She’s a camp host at one of the park’s many campsites. Her number one rule is to keep food, drinks and anything else with any kind of odor inside a bear box. What’s that? It’s a hard-sided container that all national parks in bear areas will have for you. The smells stay inside the bins, so the bears stay outside the camps.
Food is the easy item on the list to remember to keep inside the bear box. Most campers know all those savory smells that keep the family coming back to the grill will keep the bears coming back for the same treats. But an unopened can of soda pop will do the same. As soon as that fuzzy forest king crushes a can, he’ll taste the sugary treat inside and remember where he found it day after day. The same is true for toiletries like toothpaste and cologne. So to keep your family and fellow campers safe, put anything you’re questioning in the bear box. And don’t be afraid to ask your camp hosts if you’re not sure.
Clean-up is especially important for your safety. You may even find you’re cleaning more often than you do at home. Diana says dirty pots, pans and plates can’t sit around. They need to be cleaned as soon as you’re done with them. All that extra food you scrape off and throw away goes into the dumpster, not the campfire. Whatever doesn’t burn completely could become Yogi’s midnight snack when you’re tucked in tight into your tent.
That doesn’t mean you can’t have a classic campfire snack. Just burn off the ends of those marshmallow skewers before you throw them away or put them back into the bear box.
Bears shouldn’t stop you and your family from exploring the woods by foot or by bike. You just have to let them know you’re on your way. Talking, singing or making any other comforting noises on the trails will let the animals ahead know you’re on your way, especially those protective mama bears. Just like most of us, they’d rather get out of your way than in your way.
Since you can’t always be sure they’ll hear you, carry bear spray. It works like the pepper sprays a lot of us have on our key chains. It disorients the animal, giving you time to get away.
What do you do when you know there are more than a few dens around your campsites? Let your fellow Facebook fans know exactly how you plan for “beary” happy camping.