kind of funny this thread is here now.
We just got back from a week in the mtns and Gatlinburg. We stayed in a cabin up in Roaring Fork. This vacation was nicknamed "bears gone wild"
we had bears in the driveaway daily, crawling around the front porch and standing right at the front door stairing at us. We encountered bears up in Roaring Fork while we did the auto tour, and darn near got attacked by a mama bear with two cubs while we had lunch in Greenbrier. The Greenbrier experience was fairly scary. The bear was determined to get to our table we were the only ones in that picnic area. She got about 15 feet away and was not stopping. I hit the car alarm on the remote and started jumping up and down while screaming like a little girl. She turned tail and took off into the woods. If the alarm had not worked we would have had a real problem.
And honestly while I had a .45 stored legally in the vehicle I never once thought of trying to get it and I was not in imminent fear of my life. I think you would be opening a huge can of trouble if you shot a bear in the park, oof. There are better ways of moving a bear out of the way and shooting them is not on my list. Get caught brandishing a loaded pistol up there and there will be lots of 'splaining to do.
Word to the wise, let the bear do what it will short of maiming someone, scream and yell a lot and keep the darn food out of sight. They know what grocery store food looks like. Never turn your back and run, that makes you part of the luncheon buffet.
Lottsa fun though.