One evening when I was camped at Zion NP, my wife and I went into town and returned well after dark. We didn’t plan well and had no flashlight but we knew the way back to our campsite as we go there often. Once you leave the street and actually enter the park there are few light so in the darkness we walked very slowly and carefully. But there was something out there, sometimes just out of sight and sometime barely visible for a second or two. As we past the area where the visitors center was there were a few very small lights on our left about 100 feet away and we could see half a dozen coyotes investigating the trash cans and other likely spots for a snack and as we scooted past this area a coyote passed 10 feet in front of on his way to the feast. I could hear and sometimes see other coyotes to our right out in the parking lot we had to cross to get to the campground. I was being brave for my wife and kept reassuring her that they weren’t interested in us but honestly it was scary. I would guess perhaps a dozen, maybe more were right there all around us looking for food and we were hoping we didn’t appear to be food. We persisted shuffling in the dark to the first restroom by the campground where there was finally some light where we could see our way. Never again without a flashlight when we leave camp.

Just glad you didn’t beep at your wife.