Were the words ringing in our ears as the ranger hung her head out the check-in station window.
I didn’t pay attention because I was already keeping my distance, but there were many who weren’t. The second sighting was even worse. Just down the road, minutes after our first black bear sighting, were two more black bears roving through the forest. A good indicator that a black bear is in the vicinity would be to pay close attention to how many cars are unlawfully parked on the side of the road, not to mention the herd of people. Now, be sure to stay behind the ‘not-to-bright’ layer of people who are standing way too close in the event that the black bears attack!
Alright, I’ll be straight with you, black bear attacks are extremely rare, but in the event that you come face-to-face with one someday, here is some advice I found for dealing with such a situation.
Speak calmly and slowly back away. Doing so identifies you as a person, will show that you are non-threatening, and will allow some space between you and the black bear. Cody’s advice to me, prior to our camping trip, was to not run away. Whatever you do, DON’T RUN! Their natural instinct is to chase you whether they want to or not.
Now, I also read that since they are usually very timid, you can scare them away by yelling, banging pans, or by make any other sorts of loud and obnoxious noises to scare them.
Thankfully, we weren’t involved in any encounters that required rash decision making!
They were all rather difficult to photograph because of the tall grass and constant movement. Luckily, Cody got this awesome video so that we could share the experience with you!
PSA: For the record, I just want to say that it is NOT OKAY to park your vehicle in the middle of the road, mush less get out of the vehicle that is holding up traffic! Who does that?! Seriously. Especially on a busy road like Skyline Drive! I was dumbfounded by that display of stupidity.
Please, don’t do that 😀