My Standoff with a Skunk
I recently submitted at story to be featured on National Park After Dark Podcast. If you love the outdoors and podcasts, this is a great listen for a morbid twist and true crime. They also give their listeners the opportunity to share their personal stories by written submission. I’ve wanted to share one particular story for some time, and I finally got around to sending it. Afterward, I thought, why not share my experience with you?!
My best friend, Katie, and I love the outdoors, and in 2022 we created a plan to embark on a National Park tour throughout West Texas and Southern New Mexico to Big Bend, Guadalupe Mountains, Carlsbad Caverns, and White Sands. Since we don’t live in the same state, we figured it would be perfect to meet in the middle. This was our first big camping/ hiking trip, and our first set of National Parks before attempting to visit every park. Looking back, having traveled to eight National Parks, I realize how naive we were. We felt well-prepared with a planned itinerary, a checklist of gear and food, and a go-with-the-flow mindset. We first arrived at Big Bend National Park where we noticed bear boxes at every campsite. I’ve been camping plenty of times in the hill country and coastal regions, so this was new to me. I read that black bears began migrating back to Big Bend from Mexico during the 1980s after having vanished for nearly fifty years. Despite the low population, we remained cautious and kept our food, toiletries, and water inside the box during nightfall. No issues or sightings at camp or on the trail.
After enjoying the park for a few days, our next destination was the Guadalupe Mountains where we would hike to Guadalupe Peak–the highest elevation point in Texas. Side note: we learned on our ascent that travelers who hike the summit of every state are known as “high pointers.” This seemed interesting, but not sure I’d want to make this a personal goal of mine. When we arrived at our campsite in the Guadalupe Mountains, we noted there were no more bear boxes. We didn’t bother to conduct further research and assumed there wouldn’t be any issues keeping a couple of snacks inside our tent for the night. As we awakened from our first night, Katie picked up a wrapper and casually stated, “Looks like we had a visitor last night.” At first, I assumed she had eaten her snack and just forgot, until I saw the bite marks on the wrapper. We shrugged it off and got ready for our biggest hike of the trip.
After our descent, Katie decided to rest in our tent for the remainder of the afternoon. I don’t blame her, that hike was intense, but I had just enough “hiker’s high” left in me to go on a smaller in-and-out trail to Devil’s Hall. If you ever get the chance to visit the Guadalupe Mountains, I recommend both hikes, but maybe not on the same day. I set off by myself with a CLIF bar, a refilled water reservoir, and no cell phone. It had died on our last hike, so I told Katie to contact the park rangers if I didn’t make it back by nightfall. The views were gorgeous and I never ran into another hiker along the entire trail until I made it to Devil’s Hall. There, I met two fellow lady hikers and they were kind enough to offer to take a couple of pictures of me between the towering slated rock walls.
We quickly learned we were all from the same city and continued our hike back to the campground together. During our conversation, I mentioned how I thought it was interesting there were no bear boxes or warnings of bears in the area, unlike Big Bend. One of the hikers replied, “Yeah, you don’t have to worry about bears or cats up here, but you do need to watch out for skunks.” Puzzled at her statement, I asked her to elaborate. She shared a couple of stories of how other campers at the Guadalupe Mountains have mentioned skunks breaking into their tents when they sense food is inside. She even recalled one camper’s story of how a skunk broke through the flooring from beneath the ground. The hairs on the back of my neck shot straight up! Did a skunk come into our tent last night and eat Katie’s snack? Was it just staring at us while it helped itself to a little midnight snack? As soon as we made it back to the campground, I thanked the ladies for being so sweet to let me tag along and for sharing their stories. I told Katie what I learned and we made sure to pack away all food and toiletries inside the car before nightfall.
We were both exhausted and fell into a deep slumber, but not deep enough as a few hours into our sleep I heard a shuffling either just outside or inside the tent. Granted it was windy, but it sounded as if someone was walking around inside our tent. It was nearly pitch dark, and without my glasses, I couldn’t make out the faint white stripe slowly moving parallel to my sleeping bag. Still unaware of what was happening, I reached for my glasses and squinted a little more to make out the shadowy figure. It was a skunk! Terrified, I leaned against my poor friend while hitting her side and screaming in a whisper voice, “KATIE! KATIE!” She jolted out of her sleep, asking what was wrong. I couldn’t get out the words as I was crying from laughter. I was scared and couldn’t believe what was happening at that moment. Perhaps, my laughter was some sort of defense mechanism instead of freezing. I couldn’t believe this was happening to us in the middle of the desert. What if it gets startled and sprays us or bites us and we’re fighting this tiny creature to get out? It was all so real and silly at the same time. Katie reached for her glasses and pointed her headlamp at the skunk before repeating, “It’s okay. Chill. Chill. Shit!” The skunk hadn’t noticed us yet, most likely because they have poor eyesight, so Katie gave it a few gentle scats, whispering, “Psst! Psst!” Once it realized it had been caught, the skunk quickly scurried away. We both started laughing and wondered what we could have missed. Turns out, I overlooked my packet of sunflower seeds. We got rid of it and surveyed the tent one more time to check for anything else. The coast was clear, but we worried it would come back looking for more. We barricaded ourselves inside with our bags in hopes we’d be safe if it tried to come back. We even tied the laces on the ends of the zippers for extra security.
It took us some time to calm down and fall back asleep after all the excitement, but eventually, we were able to rest. Probably one hour later, I heard more rustling against the tent wall next to me. At first, I thought it was the wind, but nope, the skunk was back! This can’t be happening! How did it get inside the tent?! Did it unzip the tent and push our bags to the side? I woke up Katie again, and this time we both shooed it out of our tiny, fragile home. We knew we hadn’t left anything out this time, but were convinced the skunk came back hoping to find more treats. Thankfully, Katie had some zip ties in the car, but we had to dig our way through the car to find them. At this point, I was wide awake. We eventually found the zip ties and wrapped the zipper tags together. There was no way any skunks were using their little hands to break them apart.
The skunk never did return, but I lost out on my sleep for the rest of the night. I envied Katie as she was too exhausted to keep her eyes open. Every time the wind blew, I found myself shining my headlamp outside the mesh of the tent and checking to see if the zip ties were still attached. Who knew something so small would cause such a problem for us? The next morning, we laughed and knew we had the perfect camp story in our pockets. We were thankful we didn’t get sprayed and that this was a minor incident compared to coming in contact with much larger wildlife. Ever since my experience, I triple-check to make sure no food or toiletries are left inside my tent at nightfall or when I leave for a hike, no matter where I go. As part of my planning, I also research the area’s wildlife and their behaviors. Thankfully, I didn’t come into close contact with wildlife for a few years. Stay tuned for my story on coming face-to-face with a black bear while on a primitive trail in Wyoming.
If my story airs, I’ll be sure to let y’all know and you can listen whenever you want! Until then, I’m curious to know if you have any close-call experiences while camping/ hiking.
