I will be camping at Whitney Portal Campground on July 18, 19 and thought I'd ask any of you who might have camped here a few questions primarily related to bears:
1. We have a 4 year old, so I'm concerned about bears and safety for my son. Any suggestions?
2. Ice chests - Should they be stored in bear containers, if so how big of an ice chest will they hold?
3. Any issues with having a BBQ?
4. Anything else I should be aware of?
Thanks.
1. Keep him under constant supervision. The campsites are nice, but it's rough terrain. My son had a blast, but his mother and I did not have so much fun following him around everywhere.
2. They have pretty big bear bins at each site. We have a big ice chest and it fit with our friends' ice chest and other food stores as well. For a normal size family for a weekend stay, storage shouldn't be an issue unless you go way overboard.
3. We didn't have any issues with a BBQ. We brought one and cooked chicken one night, and hamburgers/hot dogs another. We made sure we emptied the dripping catcher before bed, and we burned off as much as we could by leaving the BBQ on for a good 5-10 minutes after cooking. No issues at all.
4. There is plenty to do to have fun with the kids. Lots of places to walk and explore, the creek to mess around in. There are scorpions, I found that out on the trail just last week. Fishing is fun, there's a lot of trout in the little pond near the store. No wifi that I could find, but 3G coverage with Verizon was better this year than it was last year. Closer to the road, better coverage.
Have a great trip!
