San Juan Bear Sightings?

[bigDmulc009]

Heading to the San Juans (Sneffels, Navajo Basin, Chicago Basin, Handies/Sunshine/Redclound) and am curious if any hiker/campers have seen anything.

I'm well prepared for camping in bear country, but am just wondering if anyone has some personal beta!

[Vincopotamus]

Generally, backcountry bear encounters are fairly rare. You'll have much better luck spotting one eating trash in and around Durango

[Tory Wells]

Follow the rules for bear country and you'll be fine. Black bears are much more shy than grizz, and don't seem to be a problem in the San Juans like they can be in other parts of the state, like near Aspen. You are more likely to have problems with porcupines, marmots and goats in the San Juans than you are bears.

[bigDmulc009]

Thank you for the responses- I've only had one bear encounter outside the town of Crestone and that was due large in part to group camping negligence

[rijaca]

One of my hiking partners claimed to see several bears in the trees of No Name Creek earlier this week. They looked like tree stumps to me.

He also claimed that marmots stole his Spot.

[brett.t.burch]

I had a fairly large black bear run right across the road in front of me in downtown Telluride a few year ago, and I know bears are quite active in Lake City (seasonally), but I've never seen one in the woods despite plenty of opportunity for that.

[acidchylde]

Anecdotal at best, but summer before last we were going to camp in the vicinity of Ouray. There are two FS campgrounds on the way up toward Yankee, and when we stopped to check out the first we were told a bear had been hanging around the area and had been seen the night/morning before. Based on some of the camps we saw as we checked out the sites, I'm not at all surprised.

I've heard about bears in lots of places I've been, but the only in-state place I've ever actually seen one was a Durango hotel parking lot.

[scottaskinger]

The similar bear "encounters" are pretty funny! The only bear that I have ever seen in Colorado is running across 550 just north of Durango in the middle of the day.