My sister (Deb) and her husband (Dave) go to the Smokey Mountains 3 or 4 times a year and have been going for over 50 years. It is one of their happy places! They own a time share there, as well as their 40’ RV. Just about every year they go for all of April for her wildflowers. This year I decided to drag our travel trailer out to meet them for a week (4/22 – 4/29). I was more about photographing the Black Bears and the spring cubs. Once the moms bring the cubs out of their winter dens, it is easier to find them due to the fact that the little cubs can only travel so far. I am good friends with several of the local photographers that knew where the winter dens were and was lucky enough to find 4 or 5 sets of cubs.
Deb and Dave have been staying at the same campground since they bought their RV in 2007. Riverbend Campground is a Christian ran business that most sites back up to the Little Pigeon River in Pigeon Forge TN. All sites have full hook-ups and concrete pads. From behind our campsites, I photographed Great Blue Heron, Mallards, and Wood Ducks. The truck and camper did great!
I went to Cades Cove 4 of my 6 days there and have over 600 full frame bear photos left to process. I will continue to add them to this newly created Black Bear Gallery. We also did a couple of hikes I had not been on before. One morning we hiked to Grotto Falls, and a couple days later we hiked to the Walker Sisters cabin and school.
I love the Black Raspberry Jam from the Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge, On our way to go get my yearly supply, my sister spotted a Texas Longhorn running loose. So of course we had to stop and watch. I called the local police and reported the quickly growing steer jam. It was pretty exciting to watch the hands from the Skyland ranch try and convince him to go back up the hill. He charged them and almost got one of the hands. He ran right behind my truck. I was happy he didn’t decide to ram it.
On Sunday, Jarrett, Deb & Dave’s grandson, and their son-in-law, Jeff, met us at the campground with Jarrett’s girlfriend, Sara. Sara’s family owns and operates the NASCAR Speed Park in Pigeon Forge. They have 8 or 9 tracks. We got the full VIP experience and all of us boys drove all the different tracks with the faster cars. It was a blast and we even went behind the walls to see them working on the cars and carts.
A few other captures:
Super happy with the Canon R5, R52, and the RF600mm f4.
Sorry for the mix of professional photos with a few iPhone ones mixed in. I noticed the last update to Word Press broke all my “Galleries”. Guess I know what I’ll be working on soon.
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Life is good and I am blessed!
Kent
They start lining people up 30 minutes before they let you board the boats. They check your ticket three different times before you finally get to board. One of the other guys I was traveling with did the tour on Sunday and he was telling me all about the plant life and the succulents that grow on Alcatraz. I always thought San Fran is cold and rainy but there were cactus and succulents everywhere. 
Finally time to board and the tours were running three boats that day. I would guess each boat took 300 people at $38.50 a head every 30 minutes. That is a lot of money. Alcatraz is part of the Golden Gate Bridge National Park.
It was a little foggy but could still see the Golden Gate Bridge on the ride out.
One of the guard towers
One of the park rangers giving the do’s and don’ts and where to get your audio tour headsets.
One of the original cannons from the military fort.
Part of the old mission style fort.
The buildings are showing their age from the weather and salt air. It looks like they had started to repaint the cell block and stopped.
The walk up the hill was not bad, but is comprised of a set of switch back ramps. There is a tram for the handicapped and people who could not make the trek. The tour starts in the cell block building.
The tour starts where the new prisoners would begin, in the showers and then to processing to get their clothes and bedding.
The tour is narrated by four previous correctional officers and inmates.
The incoming inmates were then paraded nude down “Broadway.”
The cells were super small. 7 foot by 9 foot by 7foot.
If inmates were on good behavior they got time in the yard. 
Some of the more famous inmates, include Al Capone and the Bird Man.
Cell block D was for the worst of the worse and also contained the six cells where all light could be shutout. “The Hole”
The prison library,
Guns and Keys were never allowed in the cell block. They were kept on either end of the block called the Gun Gallery. In 1946 inmates distracted a guard and over powered him, and one inmate climbed the gun gallery to the top and used a homemade bar spreader made in the local machine shop to spread the bars, and over took the guard with keys and a gun. They held the prison for 3 days. The photo below in from the explosion of hand grenades that were dropped by the army. Several inmates and 3 guards died during these 3 days.
C/D street
There were only 4 visitation booths.
Guard uniform, the inmates called them red ties.
Great view of San Francisco from the warden house end of the island.
The Golden Gate Bridge from the other end of the island.
The lighthouse
The Administration Building
What is left of the Warden’s house. Only 4 different men served as warden at Alcatraz.
I didn’t take any DSLR equipment on this trip . Everything was shot and documented with my new iPhone XS Max. I am impressed with the portrait settings as used in this selfie.
The escape. Two adjoining cells used spoons from the kitchen to tunnel through the concrete.
They have opened up a panel in the wall to show the space in between the cells where the inmates climbed the pipes to get out.
Not all tours every day do the “Sounds of the Slammer”. I was lucky enough to get to be there during this demo.
So my last post before this was almost 1 year ago. I came close to not renewing my blog this year. I made a promise to myself I would try to get back to doing more photography and posting more. So time will tell.
Headed up to Page Arizona for the night.
At first I thought Sharon was just being a good sport. But about 10 minutes into the tour she was getting incredible shots with her iPhone. The first 30 minutes in the canyon was super nice as we had the canyon to just us 5 photographers and Sharon. Then the madness came and 250 to 300 people flooded in. I messed up a couple camera settings about half way through and got frustrated. 
All in all, I am super happy with my results, but a little bummed. The light beams only happen during the summer. All the more reason to be going back in June to capture the light beams and also do the night tour while the Milkyway is over the canyon. 
So I over came my fear to get the money shot. I hope after that build up my humble offering isn’t a let down.
I felt amazing to be back in the field with a camera in my hand, We both truly enjoyed this trip!