It's not just a tourist destination, a mother bear and her cubs were caught on camera swimming in Lake Tahoe.
The caniforms have been frequently spotted around the area but not during the day when Pope Beach was full of people, according to KTVN.
"When bears are daytime active, that kind of sends up a little red flag to us that maybe they are acclimated to human beings and to human activity," Chris Healy, Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman told KTVN. "That situation is cute and cuddly until it isn't cute and cuddly anymore. All you need is one human, being stupid, getting too close to these bears."
The bears went into the water for about 30 minutes before walking back into the woods, Abbigale Forsman, who works for Kayak Tahoe, told KTVN.
Employees worked to keep other people on the beach from getting too close to the family of bears.
Nora Alvarez captured footage of the cubs and sow and shared the videos on YouTube Wednesday.
The heat and ongoing drought in the area likely contribute to the bear sightings, Doug Howard, operations manager of Tahoe Recreation told KTVN.
"They're looking for water," Howard told KTVN. "It's getting drier up in the mountains and it's their natural habitat. So they want to go down to the beach, swim, cool off."
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