OK, let me preface this by saying I'm the girl who actually "likes" all things to do with nature - including most animals/critters.

While camping in state parks, I've only been lucky enough to see deer (up close). Red Top Mountain State Park in Georgia is known for the deer population, and they are quite willing to wander through your campsite at any time of the day (or night).

The only bear I've encountered was on a backpacking trip, and we weren't set up in camp, but were on the trail. We heard it before we saw it (and it was a young bear, about 100 yards from us, up on a hillside). Needless to say, we put the "pedal to the metal" and hoofed it on out of there, because if the baby was there, it was guaranteed that mama wasn't far away.

Snakes? Sure, they're out there. But I've seen more of them in my yard at home than I've ever seen while backpacking. And I've never seen any at all in public campgrounds.

The only "critter invasion" in a public campground happened in the middle of the night one time. My friend Mike (who snores so badly we always make him sleep as far away from everyone else as possible) had set up his sleeping area in the middle of a clearing. It was a very nice night, so he wasn't in a tent. In the middle of the night he woke up and found out that he had placed his sleeping bag in the middle of a "major highway" of a sizeable grandaddy longlegs convention. That's the closest I've ever come to peeing in my pants, I laughed SO hard. Never before (or since) have I seen (or heard) a grown man pitch such a hissy fit. Well worth waking up in the middle of the night to witness that.

Whirlwind