was indeed eventful! We all loaded up in one vehicle for the journey to try to find a bear in the Great Smoky Mountains. By all, I mean all 9 of us - 6 adults, two kids, and one Payton in a large car seat. It was a tight squeeze but well worth it to see the bears....right Chandra?!?!
An 11 mile one way gravel road takes you throughout Cades Cove. Traffic was indeed heavy the day we were there and we missed a few animal sightings due to the cars lined up in front of us. Cades Cove is a valley surrounded by the Great Smoky mountains. A variety of wildlife are often spotted in the area. We were fortunate enough to see wild turkeys, horses, deer, and two black bears (although they were spotted prior to entering and just after exiting the Cades Cove loop).
Wild Turkey, barely spotted above the tall grass.
Horses grazing in a field.
We saw lots of deer...with no threat of them slamming into our car and totaling it! They seemed very oblivious to the cars going by and continued to graze in the meadow. We saw one baby laying just off the side of the road in the woods.
This was our second black bear spotting but the photos didn't turn out too great of the first bear. The first bear was walking through thick trees as we approached Cades Cove. We missed one bear in Cades Cove and we were hoping for just one more bear spotting. Just after exiting Cades Cove traffic was stopped. The cars passing us by were eager to tell us a bear was ahead! We were sure he would be gone by the time we inched up to him but to our amazement he was still sitting there, oblivious the all the camera flashes. This bear was about 15 feet off the side of the road having a little veggie snack! Apparently, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is over-populated with black bears so it may not have been so unusual for us to see them so quickly and so easily.
Despite being a little crammed in the backseat, it was really great to get to see the black bear up close...right Chandra?!?! Check out the bear link above for some interesting info on black bears in the Smokies.
1 comment:
Wow! Cool pictures! I saw a rattlesnake the other day on a trail, yet I am way more terrified of seeing a bear! Great pics of the entire trip; I am so glad yall had fun. Payton is such a cute little man.
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