Pop-up's in National Parks

[Beak12]

Using a forum other than TM's today I saw something about National Parks--the parks that are known to have bears---that they do not allow soft sided pop-ups??? Can this be true? I know about 1.5 years ago when we just drove thru Yosemite I saw old style tents on the ground.
I'm thinking that it might be because food prep is done inside the trailer and not on the table outside and then the food put away in the storage boxes that the park provides.

 

[lnussbau]

It certainly can be true in some places -- depends on the specific campground and park. But as far as I know, campgrounds within Yellowstone (for example) require hard sides. Even if they'd allow it, I wouldn't want to be in a soft-sided anything in bear country where there were a lot of people around. Waking up to terror isn't my idea of a good time.

I've been tent camping/backpacking in bear country, and we had provision for keeping food up high and away from camp, but that was in remote areas where bears don't come across people all that often.

 

[Scott O]

The TM is really a new beast for the folks who make the rules. Pop-up refers to the traditional tent trailer. The TM is every bit secure as other trailers. If a bear can easily break into a car, it can just as easily break into any trailer or motorhome. They just haven't decided to do so for the most part. When we register for a campground, I simply say we have a 26' trailer. Because that is what it is. I would not hesitate to camp anywhere trailers are allowed in my TM. I would not have done this back in the tent trailer days.

 

[PopBeavers]

I've been tent camping/backpacking in bear country, and we had provision for keeping food up high and away from camp, but that was in remote areas where bears don't come across people all that often.

fwiw, in Yosemite backpackers are required to carry and use bear-proof containers. All food, tooth paste, Chapstick, etc. goes into an air tight plastic back which then goes into the hard plastic container.

I keep hearing that the only place that ACTUALLY prohibits tent trailers is Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone, but I could be wrong.

 

[Al-n-Sue]

FWIW - we are going to Yellowstone and Grand Teton in September and have reservations at RV parks within the park - Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone and Colter Bay RV Park in GT. Both allow Trailmanors - I asked specifically. I also found a number of people on the forum who have camped there with no problems. I know that regular "popups" (with canvas sides) are not allowed in these areas. I think this applies as well to the "hybrid" travel trailers with canvas popout beds on the ends. But there may be campgrounds that allow popups - but with restrictions on food storage.

In the Rocky Mountains you will find a lot of places that have restrictions on tents and canvas sided trailers - basically you cannot keep any food inside the trailer. When we had our Starcraft popup, we had to move our box of food and ice chest to our TV each night. Almost all of the Colorado State Parks have this restriction.

 

[Bill]

For example go to
http://www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/camping.htm
and scroll down a bit to Campsite Reservations.

Bill

 

[brulaz]

In the Rocky Mountains you will find a lot of places that have restrictions on tents and canvas sided trailers - basically you cannot keep any food inside the trailer. When we had our Starcraft popup, we had to move our box of food and ice chest to our TV each night.

Yup, Glacier N.P. was like that.

 

[lnussbau]

fwiw, in Yosemite backpackers are required to carry and use bear-proof containers. All food, tooth paste, Chapstick, etc. goes into an air tight plastic back which then goes into the hard plastic container.

...

That's true today. Lots of regulations in place today weren't there 20, 30+ years ago. My backpacking days are long gone.

 

[PopBeavers]

That's true today. Lots of regulations in place today weren't there 20, 30+ years ago. My backpacking days are long gone.

About 4 years ago I took my son (now 26) and daughter (now 29) from Tioga Lake, over Clouds's Rest and then down into Yosemite valley, with a side trip to the top of Half Dome to watch the sunset from the top. We had two bear canisters, but never saw any bears.

Two years ago my daughter and I did 38 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail north from Donner Summit to Sierra City. We did not use the bear canisters, but did see one bear.

One thing that I pointed out to my daughter was that if you hear cracking sticks around you in the middle of the night this is good news. I pointed out the deer, with their hooves, are more likely to make noise than a bear with pads on its feet. When we saw the bear during the day, even though it was running, we could not hear it at all even though it was only about 200 feet away.

I believe it is rare for bears and deer to be together.

In the morning after our first night I found my daughter's choice of words entertaining. She said "Dad, did you hear all of the large animals last night?"

 

[scrubjaysnest-TMO]

pop-ups

We camped at Yellowstone once this year and twice at Glacier NP in our pop-up. No problems except for the constant bear lecture. Fishing bridge, in Yellowstone NP doesn't allow pop-ups. That is fine with us as we don't like camping between two painted lines. Made that mistake there in 1989.
FWIW we see more bears from our front porch then we did on our trip to Alaska and back.
But now we have a TM so the game changes.

 

[T and C]

A few years ago my wife and I were camping at Twin Lakes campground in Mammoth, CA. We were in our Coleman pop-up. As we sat at our campfire, we noticed a bear standing on the picnic table in a campsite two sites down from us.

The next day we found out that Bozo had left a box of something called "Ding Dong's" on the table.

Needless to say we were sure to remove all food from our trailer that night, as usual.

Tom