The Furry Things

Now I bring you some of the furry things that we saw down on this trip. The first thing we did when we got to the park was to drive a section of the Foothills Parkway. We had some great views and had a picnic lunch on top of one of the smaller mountains at a picnic area that gave us a great breeze to eat by.

After that we made our way to Cade's Cove hoping to see something big and black. First though there were lots of deer out on this day. Deer aren't really a big thing for us as we see them all the time. Just a few days ago we had two in our yard in broad daylight, a doe on her way to one of our apple trees and a 6-point buck that was already there and wanted all the apples to himself, chasing away to doe so he could have his pickings of it all.
This deer was the first one we saw. She was pretty used to all the cars that went by and just mozied around looking for food. She did take the time to look at at the parade of cars occasionally.

Then we came upon the first buck. This guy wasn't really all that big but he had a nice 8-point rack mounted on his head. (Maybe I shouldn't use the word 'mounted' in his presence.)

He took his time as well chewing on the fresh grass that had been softened by the recent rains. He didn't pay much attention to anybody either but looked up long enough let pose for me for this picture. Not many people get a chance to get this close to an antlered deer so there were several cars that stopped to take pictures as well. Still though I was really wanting to photograph something a little more hairy and darker. It wouldn't be long that I would get that chance as we noticed that the long line of cars had stopped in the road and weren't moving at all. In Cade's Cove, or anywhere else that matter in the Smokies, that's a sign that somebody is seeing what most people come to see.

Yes....it's the bears. This one had been on the ground when it was first seen then made a 70-foot climb into this big tree. I know he had to be wondering what in the world was going on around him. This one appeared to be a younger male and probably in the 200-pound range. For him climb up this tree was as easy task with his large claws holding him on to the treebark as he scrambled up. I've seen them as high as 90-feet up feeding off the highest, and thinnest, limbs before their winter hybernation.

This guy (he acted like a guy by his mannerisms in the tree and the way he moved around) was pretty content to just watch all the goings on below him. Every once in a while he'd sit up on his perch, either to scratch himself or just take in the view. We don't really know how long he stayed up there before he came down. I'm expecting it was a good while as there was a very long line of cars behind us and everybody was wanting a chance to see. One woman, who must have got up on the wrong side of the bed, yelled out the window for everybody to leave the bear alone. All I can see is she just doesn't have much of a taste for nature. We watched him for about 20 minutes before finally going on our merry way and hoping to see more.

We saw another bear on Wednesday but she was in no mood to have her picture take or anything else. She cross the road in front of a pickup truck in front of us and went ahead into the woods. She seemed to be on a mission knowing where she wanted to go because she didn't slow down at all.

Thursday we went back to Cade's Cove that morning and came up on this doe that was eating close to the fence along the road. She was in a place where I could quietly slide off the road to get really close. At first she just kept on eating but then raised her head to look right at my camera lens. It was like she was saying, "Okay, I'll pose for you." After about 30 seconds she said, "Okay, now back to my salad." and got on again with the food duties. We saw a few other deer along the way and even took at side road that looked very beary but still saw nothing.

But then came the trip back. We had gone about a mile from the Cade's Cove entrance when I just happened to look down into a gully on the opposite side. There in the bottom was a mother bear with a cub walking behind it. Okay...my brain kind of went crazy at this point and I really wanted to get back to see it. I first tried pulling off the road but here came a ranger so I pulled back onto the road and drove up to the first pull off to turn around. On the way back I had to figure out which gully it was because a couple of them look alike. I couldn't see them so I turned around again. Back up we went but saw nothing again. I was really getting crazed now. We came back one more time and parked in a small parking area near the first gully.

I got out of the car and with my sense of direction all messed up went the wrong direction. I realized what I had done and turned around. As I started walking quickly back up the hill here is what I saw.

The mother bear came down off the hill and into the road. She was in a bad spot really on a curve and the two cars here had to get on the breaks pretty quick. The mother came out first and stopped in the middle of the left hand lane as the van came up on her. She eased over toward the side of the road and then the cub came down. At one point the cub stood up and wrapped his paws around his mother's nose. She was a larger female at probably between 200 and 250 pounds. I was really mad at myself for going the wrong way as she probably would have stepped out in front of me and I could have got my best bear pictures yet. But I guess that will have to wait for next time. Both bears stood along the road for about a minute and then I guess Mama had had enough of the traffic and the pair went back in the woods. Hopefully if I get to go back in September I'll get to see some more...and hopefully my brain won't go to self-destruction so that I can get a better picture next time.....%-)