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BOOK CLIFFS — A Heber City family got a big surprise while camping in the Book Cliffs area when they came almost face-to-face with a bear.
Sami Graham said she peered from her trailer window to see a 6-foot-tall black bear Saturday night.
"This bear is standing straight up on his hind legs looking at me straight in the eye," she said. "I wasn't expecting to be nose-to-nose with this bear."
"I just hurried and closed my blinds," she added.
Graham she and her four children began making a lot of noise inside their trailer, hoping to scare it off by slamming cupboards, jumping up and down and increasing the volume on the TV. However, she said the bear wanted in.
She said the bear began rocking the trailer, scratching at the door, breaking off chunks of fiberglass. She said it spent more than two hours trying to tear its way into the trailer.
“It sounded like you were running your fingers down a chalkboard,” Graham said.
When Graham’s husband returned to the trailer, he fired a pistol into the air, and the bear fled.
I wasn't expecting to be nose-to-nose with this bear.
–Sami Graham
"I always wanted to see a bear in the wild," Graham said. "It was on my bucket list, but I didn't want to kick the bucket to have it off my bucket list."
This is the fourth bear incident in the Book Cliffs area this summer. In July, a black bear broke into two trailers overnight, causing a big mess.
Dax Mangus, northeastern wildlife program manager for the Division of Wildlife Resources, said a large bear population lives around Book Cliffs.
“There's a lot of bears out there,” he said. The bear population is managed through the annual bear hunt, which is underway.
He advised campers to store food instead of leaving it out.
“They like the same kind of food we like if they can get it,” Mangus said.
He said DWR would go to the area Monday and post signs.
Contributing: Whitney Evans
Compiled by: Linda Williams