Officials have issued a warning about a campground at Banff National Park after a Sherwood Park family’s run-in with a bear.
The Baylis family was sleeping in their tent trailer at the Rampart campground over the weekend when mom Ashley woke up to hear five-year-old Noah screaming.
“We noticed that some blankets and some ripping was going on and coming out of the tent,” she explained.
She quickly got Noah and his little sister to the other side of the trailer but the bear persisted.
“Then the bear started clawing at the plastic window of the tent trailer.
“My husband started banging his fist on top of the stove and yelling ‘Get out of here.’ Then the bear took off.”
She said that the family had not kept anything in the area that would have attracted the animal.
“We didn’t do any cooking in our trailer.
“My dad was very adamant that we had everything in our van and we had nothing in there.”
A notice on the Parks Canada website indicates the campground has been closed to tents and tent trailers due to bears in the area.
Baylis said despite Noah being hit in the head by one of the bear’s claws, the young boy was not traumatized.
“He hasn’t really shown any signs of being scared and I think he is ready to go camping again.
“I am okay to go camping but I don’t think I will be going to the mountains or inside that trailer anytime soon.”
