Bear Boxes in the Sierra Nevada

Generated on 2 Aug 2022 - see revision history - please send updates to the webmaster

info All GPS Waypoints: download GPX file.

This list should be accurate, but don't trust your life to it!

Help us all develop and maintain this as a useful resource: Some of these bear boxes (aka 'food storage lockers') are not on the park service info sheets. Please contact the webmaster with text descriptions of how to find these or other food lockers, GPS coordinates (include datum!) or marked maps with updates, additions, and corrections. If you don't have details, even HINTS are welcome. If you have the software that can do so, please export the waypoints and email me the text file. If you ask, I'll email you .tpo files or tiny GIF files with scanned topo fragments so you can mark the location and email them back to me.


TABLE OF CONTENTS:

click here to view regions If you follow the links below to the box details, you will see JPEG maps where I've marked the locations.
  • Bear Boxes Map with graphical links to each region
  • a list of all regions with text links to individual regions
  • a full list of all the bear boxes in all the regions
      - one-line summaries of every box in every region
      - links to the same data as the regional lists
      - GPS waypoints and full text descriptions
  • revision history and contributor credits

  • INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

    Those boxes which have been field-checked by Climber.Org contributors are indicated by waypoints starting with "BB". Unverified boxes have waypoints starting with "XX", and the GPS coordinates associated with them range from a good guess to throwing a dart at a map - I read the ranger's description of where they are, and extracted a coordinate from the map. If you are going to a place with an unverified box, please take notes and update this file!

    Waypoint data is available! Click on the link near the top of each page to download a GPX file that is suitable for most GPS units and software. Note that both latitude/longitude (NAD83) and UTM (NAD27) coordinates are provided on the individual bear box pages, and both available, but the GPX file is by definition WGS84 (almost identical to NAD83) decimal degrees. If you don't understand these acronyms, please click here for a UTM and LAT/LON coordinate explanation.

    The amount of error between the datum used for drawing most UGSG maps (NAD27) and the datum used by GPS satellites (WGS84 is essentially the same as NAD83) varies with location. Authoritative details of how to convert between NAD27 and NAD83, including charts of how much difference there is between them as a function of location, can be found on the US National Geodetic Survey's NADCON page.

    Even if you don't have a GPS receiver, use the waypoints in the regional box listings to find box locations on paper maps or your favorite mapping software.


    Useful Links: