Popular Colorado campground bans tents after bear encounter
Jun 26, 2025, 4:37 PM | Updated: Jun 27, 2025, 1:47 pm
A popular campground in Colorado’s mountains has banned all tents and soft-sided shelters after a black bear scratched at a tent with two young children sleeping inside.
The U.S. Forest Service put the tent ban in place at Difficult Campground in the White River National Forest near Aspen last week.
A black bear left puncture marks on a tent where a boy and girl, both under 12 years old, were sleeping. Their parents were in another tent nearby, but didn’t find out what happened until the next morning when the kids told them about their nighttime visitor.
After learning about the incident, Forest Service officials worked with campground hosts to clear out all tent campers. About 20 tents were at the site, and those campers were either given refunds or moved to other nearby campgrounds.
The tent ban will stay in place for the next two months.
Campground hosts said they had similar problems last year with food-seeking black bears breaking into tents and coolers.
