[Flower Sniffer]

This has only happened to us once, and we were able to camp elsewhere, but what do you do if you have a permit for a campsite and you arrive to find a bear or two hanging out there? Do you just carry on and set up your tent?

[Bootpathguy]

[Flower Sniffer]

No, not bearanoid, but thanks for asking. 🙄 It’s nothing to do with going or not going, and it’s a perfectly valid question, which you answered by not answering.

[Schroder]

Black bears or brown bears? If it's a brown bear I wouldn't go anywhere near. If it's a black bear I guess it would depend on several things. I once had bear cubs climb into the back of my truck at Cougar Rock CG at Mt Rainier with their mother nearby. I kept my distance until they left.

[Exmoor]

I would camp elsewhere. Nowdays it'd be fairly easy to take a photo to explain the situation to a ranger if the need arose. I can't imagine they'd disagree with your decision.

[Flower Sniffer]

Now that’s a great story! I’m talking black bears.

[Flower Sniffer]

Hmmm. Maybe. I guess it would depend on where you are. I might run it by a ranger next time I see one!

[Chief Joseph]

A couple years ago were were backpacking in the Bob and after going over the pass from Grizzly bear basin we encountered miles of blowdowns from a fire over the trail. So we were looking for a place to camp along the creek and came to a perfect spot, an abandoned horse camp. We were getting ready to set up camp when we spotted a huge pile of bear scat, I thing black bear....we decided to move on and after a couple more miles of misery we found another spot.

[Flower Sniffer]

[RumiDude]

[Pyrites]

I waited three or four hours to back little trailer into camp spot in Jellystone N.P. Bull bison claimed possession. I didn’t contest it.

[MackAttack]

I've had this happen twice, both in the Olympics, Enchanted Valley and Glacier Meadows. Both times the bears were fat and happy and just grazing in the meadows. Both were large campsites so we and the other groups camped as normal and tried to give the bears their space and made sure to be careful with our food.

[Malachai Constant]

This time of the year at places like 10 lake basin there are bears pretty much everywhere feeding on berries. In my experience they totally ignore humans and are not a problem. In a less rich ecosystem I would camp elsewhere. If the bears are used to humans (garbage bears), garbage around camps esp fish guts, follow you around, or Griz, go elsewhere. In California if there are piles of fist sized rocks at all the camp sites look elsewhere keep walking.

[Brian Curtis]

There are tons of bears in the Seven Lakes Basin area right now. We were up there a couple weeks ago and, depending on how you count them, saw 5-7 bears in three days. One was up close and personal. The first was right on the High Divide Trail. I came around a sharp corner and the bear was coming up the trail right in front of me. I will admit that I jumped backward. The bear acted very appropriately. My hiking partners who were right behind me never even saw it. At Hoh Lake where the 4-site campground was full we saw three bears in the evening and 2 in the morning (I think two were the same as we had seen in the evening so I would set the total at 5 bears for the trip). Those bears were used to people and my guess is that the bear you saw was the same. I would leave it alone and come back later to camp in the designated site. Wherever the bear goes to bed down it won't be in the designated camps. For the second night of our trip we were in a seldom visited basin. We found a bear there but it didn't stick around. It was amazing to see the cliffs it scaled to get out of the basin. There is a big difference in behavior between bears that are used to seeing people and that one that wasn't used to people.

[Flower Sniffer]