camperboy

Here's our experience with bear country in the TM.

We live in northern NJ with a growing blackbear population. Some here say that it is a problem and want to hunt them while others hold the oppisite opinion. Our state parks have the same basic rules about bears that Yellowstone has. We cook and keep food in the frig in the TM. Always put BBQ and, if we have it along, the cooler away at night. Usually in the back of the pick-up locked in the "topper". So far we've never had a problem. Even when we had a pop-up we had no problems, though the precautions were stricter, as you detailed in your post.

We camped at Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone in August/Sept of 2002. No BBQs left out, no garbage left out and no coolers. Rangers came around each night with a searchlight and checked every site. Had no problems. We cooked and kept food in the TM. No open food outside the frig except when using it. Only canned and dried foods in airtight containers outside the fridge. The only creature of any size we heard about passing through the campground while we were there was a timberwolf who had been through almost daily all summer. Didn't bother anyone. The skunk doesn't count for this discussion.

Only animals or creatures that have invaded or even tried to are ants. Bug bomb got rid of them—they were carpenter ants! Thankfully I caught them and got rid of them before they could do thier destructive thing.

Don't know what anyone else does, but this is our experience.

Camperboy