Cherry Creek Campground — Hotel in Silver City

So, a different review, here, says that they're sure there is a hungry black bear around here that is not afraid of humans.

I happened to stay here about a week after that review was posted, and I, too, heard the snorting. However, I was not in my tent, so I was able to figure out what it was. The snorting was from a small pack (4 or 5) of javelinas. For those that don't know, javelinas are generally not aggressive, and are usually completely apathetic towards humans unless you threaten them. They sniff, grunt, snort, and sometimes give off a pungent odor. They are not easily scared off... They generally just ignore you until they're done with whatever it is they're doing.

This is a nice wooded camping area covered with coniferous trees. There is a tiny creek that runs between the road and the campground; however, when we stayed, the creek was dry. There are some deciduous trees that lined the creek, which can be pretty when they have leaves. There are bear proof trash cans and a vault toilet on either side of the campground.

It seems a small group of javelinas like to walk down the dry creek bed in the evening looking for food. We had a fire going, and they didn't bother us, generally keeping a pretty good distance as they wandered around the campground. The trash cans are bear proof, so there was no food for them, there. It seems they were just looking for easy pickings, and when they didn't find any, they kept moving on down the creek into...

I can't say too much about this campground. We arrived around midnight and there was just one other person car camping here, we set up our tent and as soon as we started unrolling sleeping pads and bags, we heard grunting and sniffing around our tent. We're sure it was a black bear, and it stalked our tent for 30-45 minutes before we set off the alarm on our car, which didn't frighten it away. It left after awhile, but just know that a bear that's not afraid of people is in the area. We didn't have any food or toiletries in our tent and hadn't cooked any food at the campsite, so there really shouldn't have been much to attract the bear to us. We talked to the other camper and he said he saw a bear two days earlier as well, so maybe it's hanging around there. We left around 1 AM, so I'm not sure about how nice the campground is or the toilets...

Beautiful ponderosa pine and oak forest campground along a seasonal creek. There are nine or ten campsites, two pit toilet bathrooms, and four bear-proof trashcans (although there has been no sign of bears there during our visit). No drinking water is available, you have to bring your own.

Suitable for tents and smaller RVs, although the dirt road into the campground is a little bouncy. We brought in a pop-up camper with our very low clearance soccer mom SUV with no issues. Of course not all of the spots are good for trailers or RVs, and it's not always easy to turn around in all the spots, so I recommend parking by the trashcans and scouting out the four or so upper sites.

Overall, Cherry Creek is a beautiful, small, quiet and free US Forest...