Yellowstone Flashback: When Tourists were Allowed to Feed Bears If you visit Yellowstone National Park now, you'll find feeding bears solidly in the "don't" column. But, there was an era many years ago when people were not only allowed to feed bears in Yellowstone, the practice was sort of encouraged. The Smithsonian Channel video reminded me of this bygone era of Yellowstone National Park when tourists and bears spent way too much time close together. A few years ago Yellowstone Insider shared a story about bears being fed by tourists in Yellowstone and when the park put up the bleachers seen in the video so garbage dumps could be turned into bear feeders. Now, this looks insane. Back then it was an attraction.