Of course I've seen the communal bear boxes at parking lots and trailheads padlocked only to find that an NPS employee quickly took a bolt cutter to it in less than an hour.

I'm pretty sure that one could lock an individual campsite bear box. I've heard of people putting items in their campsite bear boxes and having them stolen rather quickly. I'm not sure about what lengths thieves might go to break into locked bear boxes, but I would suspect someone not wearing an NPS uniform carrying around bolt cutters would look very suspicious.


I couldn't find anything that specifically addresses this at family campsites. Would padlocking an individual bear box be frowned upon? In any case I hear the new Upper Pines bear boxes at most sites are a newer model. Are these the ones with a captive square key or something else? Is there any place to use a padlock? The old ones with the bolt and clip did have a place where a padlock could be secured, but man those things were dangerous. I bruised my finger when it got caught in the clip. The website photos show them open without a good look at the locking mechanism. Looked at a bunch of site photos on yosemitecampsites.com, but couldn't see anything close enough to see what the exact mechanism is and whether it can be padlocked.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/lockers.htm

When I was in the backpackers campground I had a site to myself, but I might have had to share a bear box if someone asked to double up on the campsite.

My personal experience has been that the stuff left in boxes is safe. No guarantees in life of course. I have been more than a little miffed when I needed to store stuff and a box was locked. Seems rather selfish to lock a communal box, though I understand the concern.

---

The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Frank Furter wrote:

> My personal experience has been that the stuff left in boxes is
> safe. No guarantees in life of course. I have been more than a
> little miffed when I needed to store stuff and a box was
> locked. Seems rather selfish to lock a communal box, though I
> understand the concern.

I wasn't thinking of locking a communal box. I was just thinking maybe at Upper Pines. I heard of someone who tossed her purse in her family campsite bear box (I know - stupid) and found it gone in less than 30 minutes.

I put my food in a box at the Happy Isles trailhead parking area/backpackers parking lot and found it mostly there when I got back. I put it in a cardboard box and apparently a rodent had chewed through the box, although none of the food was affected. Strange.

I think you can lock the campsite boxes. I know we locked one at Camp Curry a few years ago for a week while we back packed from there to Agnew Meadows.

F4RIO wrote:

> I think you can lock the campsite boxes. I know we locked one
> at Camp Curry a few years ago for a week while we back packed
> from there to Agnew Meadows.

I thought that the Curry boxes were supposed to be used by people actively staying there, along with a few available to day users. I thought the numbered ones were specifically assigned to matching tent cabins and locking was recommended.

In any case, they installed bear boxes at each tent cabin, which was completed some time in late 2007 or early 2008:

Seems to be anybody's guess:




The first one was taken last October and definitely has plates to lock; the second one was taken last March, and definitely doesn't. Both are at Upper Pines and both are the new style boxes.

My fingers also appreciate the new ones. It used to be standard practice to come home with nicked cracked infected finger cuts after a visit; no matter how careful you were, a pinch or two was almost a sure thing.

I've never locked one though (but then I don't lock much of anything), and it's hard to imagine that in the summer people would rob them when so many are in the campground. That doesn't mean there won't be a first though.

---

Gary
Yosemite Photo Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/roberthouse/yo