13-Nov-2023 Great Smoky Mountains National Park Day 2

BEARS!

So I'll start at the beginning. I started the day with a beautiful 2.5 mile hike up to lovely Laurel Falls. Oddly it's a paved trail up to a waterfall. Guessing they paved it in attempt to make it accessible to more people? Just seemed weird to have pavement in the wilderness.

Then I went to the western part of the park to Cades Cove where there's an 11 mile loop featuring some old homesteads, cemeteries and churches. Amazing how the settlers lived in the early 1800s. They built their own log cabins and didn't have nails so they notched the wood and fit it all together and it's just held there by the interlocking logs and gravity. They also had to carve out the roof shingles and the planks for flooring and walls. So impressive!

About halfway through the loop as I was pulling into the visitor center I saw a mama bear and 3 cubs just off the side of the road. Rangers had just arrived and asked us to stay on the opposite side of the road about 30 yards away from the bears. The mama and her cubs were eating walnuts and just lounging about and could not care less that there were about 50 people photographing them from across the road. I watched them for at least 20 minutes, went and explored some of the buildings that the national park service had restored and then came back and watched the bears for at least 20 more minutes. One of the cubs stood on his hind legs and played with a small branch – it was just adorable. I had seen a black bear in the woods for just a moment earlier in the morning and thought that was going to be my nature sighting and could not have been more thrilled at how long I got to stay and watch the bear family. They were still eating walnuts when I finally got back on my bike and peddled back. Wow! I was so happy I took my bike – the loop is a one-way single lane road and has many stops along the way and so my biking was at about the same pace as the motor vehicles and was so much more enjoyable. Amazing mountain views and beautiful open fields and some great exercise.

Drove out one of the side entrances of the park a short 45 minutes to Knoxville and I'm staying near the University of Tennessee. It's a real college town – my hotel is called "The Graduate". Room keys here are faux student ID cards of famous UT grads. Clever idea!

This national park and the surrounding area have so much to offer - I'd recommend you put it on your vacation destination list!