Nature Truth: My Yosemite Bear Story

I promised to share the story of my first trip to Yosemite, but now I’m thinking it might have been our second trip? Yep. It was. The 2nd trip. It really doesn’t matter. It was definitely the first time we camped there with a toddler.

Surprisingly, I am NOT into extreme outdoor adventures. I’m more of a mainstream nature experience kinda girl. You know, day hikes or camping near hot showers and real restrooms. I didn’t grow up camping. I have no clue what I’m doing out there. Mr. Play Park’s love of camping rubbed off on me when we dated and explored the Oregon Coast, Washington State, through Montana and into Yellowstone and Colorado.  Our “honeymoon” was camping in Big Sur. See how happy I look!  Keep things simple, right?

But bears  freaked me out back then. And even more so later — with a toddler in tow.   We don’t have many bear encounters in coastal Southern California, but all the good and beautiful mountainous places to camp in California are in bear country.

So this is where this little bit of family lore begins. I was a new mom on my FIRST camping visit to Yosemite.  I cannot believe I never went growing up!  But here we were in Curry Village tent cabins.  Hot showers. Check. Real restrooms. Check. Restaurants, tons of other campers, and cots on hard floors. Check. Bear lockers. Check.

Wait! Bear lockers?

And a ridiculously mangled piece of metal that used to be a car to illustrate that bears can rip through STEEL to get into food. So we’re instructed to put EVERYTHING that has a scent into the bear locker. That obviously includes food items, but warnings also talk about diapers, soaps, bathroom items, and even sippy cups! Doesn’t matter if there’s food in it or not!  Bears will still be attracted to the scent.

Our conundrum? We have toddler wearing scented diapers who can’t sleep without his sippy cup.  Can you say “bear magnet”???  I don’t know WHAT I thought the bear was going to do, but I was obsessive about making sure everything was in the bear locker as soon as it was dark. Which meant I made my husband lock stuff up before we were really done with it — so it was a hilarious ballet of stowing items and then creeping back to unlock them for a few moments before having to lock them up again.  Because, you know, when you are trying to avoid bears you should tiptoe back and forth through a dark campground CARRYING the offending items that SMELL like something a bear wants to eat. Right?

Okay, so at “light’s out” time my husband is immediately fast asleep — probably because of all the back-and-forth trips to the bear locker which probably equalled more miles than all the hiking we did that day.

My little guy is sleeping in the cot with me so I can go all Mama Bear if something comes into the tent to mess with us.  I’m tense. I’m listening to every nature sound — sure it’s a bear sniffing us out.  As all our neighbors go to sleep the campground gets quiet. I finally fall asleep.

Until I wake up.

To the sound of a loud huffing, scampering, scavenging bear outside our tent. There’s no mistaking it. The thing outside our tent is BIG. Of course, we can’t see a thing because it’s pitch dark. My husband was already awake waiting for me to panic and whispering “Yes – it’s a bear. It’s not gonna bother us.” But I didn’t panic. I listened in total amazement that there was a bear so close. Wow!

And then we woke up the next morning after our first night in the tents of Curry Village and I made him find us a room in the Yosemite Lodge.  I was happy to hang out in Yosemite Valley, but I was not going to have another night like that!

See my expression? That’s the morning after. Hilarious!

Note: This is a grizzly from the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone (see bullet point below).

Since  that fateful night:

• We lived in Colorado Springs where we’d often hike in places with bear scat and evidence of mountain lions. In fact, one Father’s Day we got a pretty close-up view of a bear just downstream from where we’d enjoyed our picnic.
• We’ve been back to Yosemite many times – but still haven’t camped there. Hunh? We should change that.
• We attended a week-long camp called the “Family Nature Summit” at Lake Tahoe where I had the chance to attend a workshop led by a bear expert and wildlife manager – who gave some really informative bear safety tips. Later, when we were out in the woods Orienteering we heard about a mama bear and her cubs encounter with another team. I was cautious, but not anxious.
• We traveled to Yellowstone — and never saw a bear in the wild — but got to hear another talk from experts at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. We also got to see the grizzlies up close, albeit in cages.
• I’m feeling pretty confident with carrying bear spray – and I ditched the bear bell back in Colorado.  Bears are more likely to scare hearing human voices than a tiny bell.  On our Alaska trip, the Denali park ranger gave an awesome “Bear Aware” talk. This park has an excellent safety record because of these informative talks and visitor education.  Here is some of their excellent information about bear safety.

So I’d say my comfort level is much better. And we took hikes in grizzly country this trip. Maybe it’s because my son, at 5′ 8” — is probably taller than most black bears now?