a tennessee family recently had a runin with an unexpected visitor while in the smoky mountains a black bear the vastola family claimed to see the bear with their own eyes when it showed up near the front porch of their hotel room at the quality inncreekside hes on our front porch mr bear is right here kim vastola says in the video she posted on her facebook page march 14 a female black bear watches from the banks of beaver creek near the maplehurst subdivison in bristol tennoct 2 2002 david criggerbristol herald courier via ap photo file the quality inncreekside in downtown gatlinburg told abc news that black bears are common to the area as the hotel sits in the middle of the smoky mountains and about a mile away from the gates to the great smoky mountain national park i was shocked first of all i thought i cannot believe this thing is around people vastola told abc affiliate wate the hotel claimed it does warn guests of the possibility of seeing bears in the area in the second video taken by vastolas husband the bear can be seen walking alongside the hotel carrying a bag holy cow says a man in the video alaska man survives brown bear attack thanks to quickthinking friend shoo bear colorado womans close encounter with a bear in her garage goes viral michael butler ceo of tennessee wildlife federation told abc news these encounters are happening more as businesses build near wildlife habitats and as we build more and more into and next to highquality wildlife habitat occurrences like these have become more frequent butler said in a statement this is doubly true in this case because weve seen black bear populations rebounding to healthy levels over the past 30 years butler reminds people to never approach any wild animal and call a wildlife officer if you see one near people kelly mccarthy contributed to this report