Hallmark vs Alaskan Campers
- Thread starter Photobug
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Photobug
Well-known member
I don't live in Bear Country, that's 20 miles to the North. I was snowmobiling through bear country yesterday fortunately, they were asleep. It's kind of a moot point, the Alaskan that came up, sold before I could consider it even further unless one comes up nearby at my price range in the next two months.
I know Yellowstone mandates hard-sided campers in certain campsites but is there anecdotal evidence a solid camper keeps bears out or a bear will go straight for the soft-sided top of a pop-up camper? I figure any camper would just slow down a hungry bear long enough to get some defense enacted. Besides slowing down a bear a little longer than a soft topped camper my expectations for the Alaskan would be warmer in extreme temps.
Yellowstone National Park doesn't allow tents or tent campers at Fishing Bridge campground. This is due to how food and garbage were (improperly) handled in the past. The other Yellowstone NP campgrounds (both those run by the National Park Service and those by concessionaires) don't have those restrictions.
Camping in Bear County Yellowstone NP might be useful. Please be aware that the rules aren't the same at each US National Park. Yosemite NP doesn't allow overnight food storage in vehicles, but Yellowstone NP does.
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Photobug
Well-known member
On the surface your comment is casual, that is a huge thing. I like the idea of a little extra space up top. If i am camping solo I will sleep in the back of my truck which is the way we rolled for 3 years now. This popup will be on a pickup bed trailer and then I will be camping with wife and possibly dogs, the bed will be made.
One of the things I like about the Hallmarks, Northstars, and Outfitters is the extra space and storage in the cabover portion. I can see the Alaskan is very streamlined up top.
billiebob
Well-known member
This ^^^^^ not that you are unsafe in a tent if you eliminate food odours. A bear will walk past a tent free from food odours but try to stop her with a hard wall trailer full of fish.
Regcabguy
Oil eater.
My Northstar TC800 has decent storage under the bed,but pretty tight climbing in and out of the bunk area. Inside doors access the front wheel well areas where we store firewood,boots and bagged up dirty clothes. In addition it has a really small wardrobe. Quite a bit of storage in compartments and under the table mount area. Outside it has the small doors which access the rear wheel well areas to store a broom,rake,outside mat.lug wrench,axe and basically long items. It's all good. Pretty primitive compared to the Hallmark but quite a bit lighter and much cheaper too. It's getting tired after 33 Baja trips on basically surface roads and trips to Utah,Az,Oregon and Washington state. Whatever works for you. If I had on site storage I'd probably get a Lance 815 but I can't visualize carrying a house on my back all the time.
Photobug
Well-known member
I will be putting my TC on top of a utility bed trailer. The idea being we will have inside and outside storage, plus whatever the truck has for storage, so plenty of it.
The plan will be store toys in and on the truck, outdoor camp supplies in the utility bed and the Truck Camper for cold weather camping, bathroom and doggie storage. While a nice big lance TC would be nice, i am afraid to become too comfortable inside a camper lest I end up with a 30+ foot 5th wheel.
Photobug
Well-known member
We did have a bear in our yard 2 summers ago. It was only a black bear but I was still very scared going out that night and cleaning up the garbage it had strewn around.
My wife is a chef and I a former fine dining server, eating well is a large part of everything we do. I can't imagine not stinking of food in some way. I remember stories of summer camp trips to Yosemite. Someone brushed their teeth before bed but did not rinse well enough, woke up to a black bear french kiss.
Motafinga
Adventurer
I have an Alaskan and while you can't leave your thick blankets and stuff made up to the edges of the bed, if you just make a couple folds towards the middle of the mattress you can leave all the bedding in the cabover with the top down. The fold down walls around the cabover is the reason. We use thick sleeping bags which make this very simple but you could use whatever.
As for bears we have always traveled with dogs and have never encountered bears and we eat like royalty, hopefully I didn't jinx myself but bears just don't seem to come around if they smell dogs.
As for bears we have always traveled with dogs and have never encountered bears and we eat like royalty, hopefully I didn't jinx myself but bears just don't seem to come around if they smell dogs.
Photobug
Well-known member
That is why we are looking at the camper so we can travel with our dogs.
I respect, appreciate, and encourage, your choice to seek information to keep you and your family safe. I think you might be over-concerned about bears, at least in relation to other hazards present in Yellowstone NP. You might find Bear-Inflicted Human Injuries and Fatalities in Yellowstone interesting.
The following is from the Yellowstone NP link: "Since Yellowstone was established in 1872, eight people have been killed by bears in the park. More people in the park have died from drowning (121 incidents), burns (after falling into hot springs, 21 incidents), and suicide (26 incidents) than have been killed by bears. To put it in perspective, the probability of being killed by a bear in the park (8 incidents) is only slightly higher than the probability of being killed by a falling tree (7 incidents), in an avalanche (6 incidents), or being struck and killed by lightning (5 incidents)."
And if that doesn't make you feel a bit better, checkout Ruminating On Unexploded Ordnance, Climate Change, And Maintaining Winter Access To Yellowstone National Park and Dud artillery shells left above Yellowstone pass.
Follow the rules on food (and trash) storage, make noise so bears can hear you (especially by running water) when hiking, keep pots and pans handy to bang together if you are actually disturbed by a bear while sleeping, and remember that many people sleep quite safely in tents.
Photobug
Well-known member
I will check out your links but I am not really concerned about a Bear conflict in Yellowstone or elsewhere although there are way more bears here than before. I am more concerned about not being able to camp in an area I want because of the hardsided restrictions. Until your last post, I was under the impression hard sided camping was a more widespread restriction. I could always sleep in the camper with the top down if it came to that.
Photobug
Well-known member
This happened outside of Yellowstone in the summer of 2018. I know the odds are slim of being attacked by a bear but reading about this incident for months in the local paper has made me a little more cognizant of being in Grizzley Country.