Living with Wildlife
Protect Your Campsite
Colorado Parks and Wildlife manages more than 4,000 campsites throughout the state. Colorado is a land of magnificent scenery and abundant wildlife; getting close to nature is a major reason people visit and camp in our state parks.
Do your part to protect wildlife. Don’t feed them — even if they beg! — and observe wildlife from a safe distance, far enough away to keep you and the animals safe. Before camping anywhere, learn how to enjoy the outdoors without creating problems for yourself or the intelligent, resourceful animals who call that place home.
Keep Animals Away from Your Campsite
-
Stash your trash
Use bear-proof trash containers if they’re available at the campground. If the containers are full, double bag your trash and lock it in your car or RV; never leave trash outside. Don’t bury garbage — bears will find it and dig it up. Never burn garbage or leftovers — a campfire isn’t hot enough to completely incinerate trash.
-
Store food, beverages and other items safely
Store food, beverages and toiletries in air-tight containers and lock them in your trunk. Never leave them in your tent or any place where wildlife can see, smell or reach them — many smart and resourceful animals have figured out that coolers contain food. Leave highly odorous foods like tuna, sausage and bacon at home. Citronella products, especially burning candles, have a strong smell that can attract bears.
-
Keep a safe cooking area
Where you eat, cook and store food and supplies should be at least 100 yards from your sleeping area. If there’s not enough room, give yourself a wide breadth: Store food well away from the tent and be sure the campfire is far enough away so that smoke doesn’t blow into your tent. Cooking intensifies and disperses food odors, so be extra careful to clean up and store food properly after cooking.
-
Keep a clean tent
Don’t bring anything with an odor into your tent, including foods, beverages, scented toiletries, gum, toothpaste, sunscreen, candles and insect repellant. Don’t sleep in the clothes you cooked in or keep them in your tent; store them with your food.
-
Lock RVs and Vehicles
Before you leave your campsite or go to sleep at night, close the windows and lock the doors of your vehicle.
Camping with Bears
Bears
Black bears are not naturally aggressive, but they are strong, powerful animals. A bear intent on getting a meal can easily injure someone who gets in its way.
When people make it easy for bears to get into food and garbage, the lure of an easy meal can overcome a bear’s natural wariness of humans. Once bears learn to follow their super-sensitive noses to campsites and picnic grounds, they can damage property and even break into cars and campers. As they start to prefer these food sources more and more, they lose their fear of humans.
Every year, some of these bears become so unafraid of people that they need to be killed in order to protect human health and safety. CPW is charged with protecting and preserving our wildlife, and every time we’re forced to put a bear down, it’s not just the bear that loses — we all lose a little piece of the wildness that makes Colorado so special.
Campgrounds are a perfect place to enjoy the outdoors, enjoy food and drinks around a campfire and make memories. Bears have strong campground memories too — that they’re good places to sneak a meal from unwary campers, that is. When visiting a campground:
- Use bearproof food lockers where provided and make sure kids know how to close them properly.
- If using your car or RV for storage, keep all doors locked and windows closed.
- If your vehicle doesn't have a trunk, consider covering coolers and baskets with a spare blanket — bears near campgrounds know very well what coolers are for.
- Use bearproof trash cans or dumpsters at the campsite, ensuring latches or locking devices are fully engaged.
- Don't burn trash in your campfire: Any remnants of food may attract bears
When you’re backpacking or camping in a remote area without many amenities, set up a bear-safe camp to protect your food and avoid attracting bears.
- If there are signs a bear has visited the area recently, leave and choose another campsite. Signs include trash scattered around, fresh tracks or scat, and recently clawed trees.
- Set up your camp far away from the edge of the forest, obvious wildlife trails, or stream banks and lake shores — all areas wildlife like to use. Camping next to a stream also makes it hard for wildlife to hear you, and vice versa, which can lead to surprise encounters.
- Avoid camping near natural food sources, like animal or fish carcasses, or bushes or trees that are bearing fruit, berries or acorns.
Bear spray is a super-concentrated, highly irritating pepper spray proven to be more effective than firearms at deterring bears. Follow all directions on the canister — and never spray inside a tent. Remember, bear spray is no substitute for taking all the proper bearproofing steps to prevent problems at your campsite.
If a bear or other animal comes into camp:
- Try to scare it away by yelling and making yourself look large by waving your arms
- Do not turn and run.
- Yell, toss small stones at it, bang pots and pans, or blow your car horn, air horn or whistle.
- Don’t corner the bear. Make sure it has an escape route.
- If the bear attacks, fight back as aggressively as possible!
After Hours Emergencies
Colorado Parks & Wildlife offices are open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For after-hours emergencies, call 911 to contact the Colorado State Patrol or your local sheriff’s department.