We took a 5 day, 4 night long weekend get-a-way to the Great Smoky National Park for Sharon’s birthday. The main purpose was to spend some time with my sister and brother-in-law. Sharon wanted to shop and knock out some Christmas shopping. I only got to go around Roaring Motor Fork twice and up to Cades Cove twice.
After stopping for the mandatory ice cream at the camp store we started around the loop road drive. Sharon stayed in town, while Deb, Dave, and I made the trip to the cove. My sister is always on the lookout for the big FIVE. Bear, Deer, Turkey, Coyote, and Bobcat. I would add another one on my list of River Otter.
First loop we found turkey and some really small deer. The whitetail numbers seemed to be WAY down from previous years.
Second loop we ran up on 3 different bear jams, but the rangers and park volunteers had broken them up and the bears were gone before we got anywhere close. The park was really packed with everybody trying to get outside during COVID. People are rude and were not using the pull-offs like they were supposed to. FINALLY on the way out, I found a bear, was able to park and got my big lens out which of course caused another bear jam. A 2 year old 250 ish pounder\ He was close to the exit between Sparks Lane near where the horse trail crosses loop road. It was laying down in a ditch behind some brush but I could hear it crushing acorns.
Sorry that was as good as I could do with the light I had t o work with, but at least a documented bear.
Our last full day we were trying to decide between going to Cataloochee to see the elk and chasing black bear again. Sharon wasn’t really feeling the trip up and over to Cherokee and Maggie Valley. So we grabbed Subway and headed to one of my HAPPY Places. Kent’s cove, I mean Cades Cove.
Before we even got to the “Entering Cades Cove” sign I saw some black movement on the side of Little River Road. There was a pull off close by and by the time I got my gear out there was only 3 people watching the bear. Miss Sharon must be the bear whisper. She went bearing with me 2 years ago and had an up close and personal with a 2 year old. Once Sharon caught up to me with her binoculars, the bear had started to move straight towards her.
We were on the side of the road about 10-12 feet higher than the bear. He just kept coming straight at us. Once he got close enough my lens would no longer focus, I knew it was time to go. I thought he was going to come up the slope and onto the road, but instead he just disappeared, There was culvert that ran under the road. The bear went into it like it uses that as it’s own highway. This was a large bear and I would put it at 300-350 pounds. I felt a little sorry for it as the flies would not leave it alone. Watched it for a good 7 minutes and 40 or 50 photos. Never got a butt shot to see if it was a female or a male.
OK, trip was a success and pressure was off as I was pretty sure I had at least one full-frame black bear photo for my blog.
Stopped at the camp store for restrooms and to get Sharon her Ice Cream and we started around the loop. It was early,, maybe 2:30 and usually don’t really find anything good until close to dark. Bear whisperer Sharon strikes again. Brakes light lit up everywhere and knew it wasn’t a deer jam. I got out grabbed my gear and starting walking passing car after car. Sharon drove the car and moved up when she could. It was a HUGE male well over 500 pounds just hanging out on the edge of a field. Once I got there, at least a mile hike up to where the bear was he just started walking straight up the tree line towards where I had setup.
He then got inside my minimum focal length of 33 feet and I put a couple cars between me and the bear, he crossed the road heading up the hill and then starting eating acorns. I would not want to end up on the wrong end of those teeth!
After about 20-25 minutes Sharon finally rolled up to where the bear was, but he was long gone. I’m on cloud nine and jump back into the car and decided we would head back to town when we rolled up on yet another big bear eating acorns. Shot about 6 frames and moved on. He wasn’t doing much, just sitting on his haunches and munching away on acorns.
Man, what a special day in Kent’s Cove!
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Life is good and I am blessed.
Kent
So just in front of the tree line where the above photo was taken in spring of 2013, I found my first decent sized whitetail buck. As soon as I pulled over and broke out the big glass instant deer jam. Big glass, brings big crowds. I felt bad for giving his resting place away, as after I took my photo there were several camera phones headed into the flied. Not a great capture but I like the purple hue of the grass he is hiding in.
Sharon still not feeling great only checked out a couple of the building / cabins. Traffic was bad for a Thursday and the loop took about an hour. We had just a little usable light left and Sharon said I could start another loop and use Spark’s lane.
The ranger thanked me, and asked me if I had seen any wild life. I told him nothing worth photographing and that I was interested in bears, river otter, and bobcats. He told me where a bear was and has been for the past 5 days. On the back side of the loop I saw a smoke phase or leucistic turkey. no good place to stop and raining harder so no photo proof.
Back to the hotel to check on Sharon and get some breakfast. She was up, dressed and feeling much better. Ate some breakfast and we were off to explore the parkway shops. Then off to check on the bear. I was really hoping he would be down out of the tree so Sharon could see him. When I got to the tree, the traffic was backed up forever and knew he was still in the area. As soon as we found a safe pull off to park we starting walking towards the front of the stopped cars. He was on the ground and he wanted to get back to his nut tree but cars and people were in his way. I sat up to photograph him when some idiot went into the woods and cut off his escape route. That turned him straight towards me and Sharon. The bear stopped just before I was ready to start making some noise and waving my tripod around. Perfect photo op a full frame black bear photo that made eye contact with Miss Sharon.
On the way back we stopped at the famous sign to get our picture taken. I was still packing the big glass when another couple agreed to take out photo if I would take theirs.
Then we headed back Roaring Motor Fork. Showed Sharon the cabins, saw the leucistic turkey again, too much traffic to stop for photos. Showed her the tree I hit back in 2012 when we found all the morel mushrooms. He favorite part was the babbling creek that runs down the entire backside of the loop. I am not a landscape photographer, but did take a tripod and a wide angle lens, so I setup in the rain to try my hand at a cascade photo. I thought it turned out pretty good and one of Sharon’s favorite from the trip.
That night we ate at 
Had to put the big rig away and get my second body paired with the 100-400 to fit a full body shot in. He was tired and didn’t do much, he just laid down and never bugled. He was a royal buck 6 X 6. 
I wondered if it was the same 6X6 I saw in the same meadow in 2014 shown below.
Looped the interstate around back to Pigeon Forge and ate at Farm Kitchen.
