Shannon

We've never had a problem. Just like anywhere else you might go for an overnight stay, don't advertise your valuables and lock your vehicle, and generally you'll be fine. Someone has to be pretty inebriated or pretty bold to go to a stranger's zipped up tent--there's no telling if they're asleep in there, or not, after all. So anything we might miss stays on our person, locked in our vehicle, or zipped up in the tent (least valuable, most easily replaceable items).

Funny story about animals, though. When we camped in Big Bend National Park, we passed a campsite that was literally being ATTACKED by several vultures. They were on the picnic table, cooler and ground, picking through all the foodstuffs the campers (not at the site, at the time) had left in a large crate on the table. Bread, etc. was all getting picked through. Several of us tried to shoo off the vultures, but they looked at everyone with a shrug--they had no intention of leaving.

Same camping trip, the park staff advised tent campers to unpitch and unzip their tents anytime they weren't in them to discourage critters (coyotes? javelina? raccoons? I can't remember if they specified what the primary marauder was) from RIPPING into tents to scout and score goodies. We were in a rental tent camper at the time, so it wasn't an issue for us, but it was funny seeing all the flattened tents during the daytime hours when folks were out hiking and enjoying the parklands.

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- Shannon Moore
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