We are thrilled to be back in Gatlinburg and back in the Smoky Mountain National Park. We really enjoyed our time here in 2013 and never thought we would get back here, so this is exciting for us. This morning we decided to "do Gatllinburg" so we headed that direction, stopping at Flapjacks for breakfast, then we found a parking lot in central Gatlinburg and parked for the day. Joe needed a new cover for his Notebook, so that was one thing we were shopping for. And he found one, and I bought a "cross the body purse." That was our 2 main purchases. Oh, and 6 ounces of pecan fudge. I think my hiking caught up with me today because I was sort of dragging, but Joe was back to being the energizer bunny so he kept us going. We did stop and listen to a band for a few minutes, and I got to rest.
After we finished our shopping, we stopped at the visitor center and got some information on the waterfalls in the park. We might try to hike to a couple of them tomorrow. Then we drove back into Gatlinburg to our favorite Mexican restaurant from 2 years ago (that Cathy had recommended to us), and had a great dinner. Then back through town (which is a slow process) and down to Cades Cove for our Wildlife Viewing Drive. Along the way, we stopped at one pull-off and walked down to Little River. The water running through this river is way lower than it was 2 years ago, but this apparently is one of the deeper spots and there were a lot of families enjoying water activities. I caught a picture of a butterfly also enjoying the scenery here.
I decided to stick my toe in the water, so I took off one shoe and sock. But I lost my balance and got my other foot wet, so I had to wring out that sock.
Then we high-stepped on the rocks over to where the kids were jumping and diving into the river. I found a little Brenda rock along the way. It appears that the water here is a little deeper as it gets near the bend.
Joe took this picture of some guy copping a feel. Or maybe he was saving her life or something.
Then we were off to find wildlife. And We Did! We saw 6 turkeys as soon as we got into Cades Cove. And a couple deer. Joe remembered this is where we had seen all those beautiful, different colored horses, and we found them again, right next to the fence. Some must be belgiums or draft horses because they are huge. And one looked like a Dalmatian puppy. People were feeding them grass from the other side of the fence, so the horses were very accommodating. (Can you tell I like horses)
There were some pretty meadows here, between the forests. We took one side road where we had seen bears before, but didn't find anything on it. We turned around and drove it back, and still didn't find anything. But back on the main road, we found our bear!!!!
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| Bear is on right side of front of car, little black spot. |
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| Bear heading into the woods |
We were very lucky to have gotten to see him at all, but I sure would have liked to have been the one car in front of us! We watched him a little as he entered the forest, but we quickly lost sight of him. He was a big one!
There was a lot of traffic through here tonight, a lot more than our last visit, which I think was only about one week earlier in the year. People come through in the back of pickups, or in the back of SUVs.
As it got a little more twilight, the deer started moving around more. We spotted another one along here. And then 10 scattered around in one big field that had a ditch running through it. The deer were mostly along the ditch.
The fog really started moving in to some of the meadows, very pretty sight. Made it harder to see the animals, though.
Joe kept looking at the brush in these meadows, wondering if they were blackberry briars. He finally had to check it out.
And he captured a pretty sunset.
At the visitor center, we asked about the firefly synchronization, and it apparently is still in full swing. So as it got darker, we started looking for that. Have you ever tried to watch to see if fireflies are blinking in synchronization? It's not easy. First of all, you have to get several together in your line of vision. Then how do you know if its the same one that flickers again? There are zillions of fireflies here, I'll give them that, but we could not confirm the synchronization. It looked like they mostly flickered off an on alternatively. But how would we know. We did not see them line up and flicker all at the same time, but that's about all I can say. The guy at the visitor center said he saw some the other night, and about every 8 seconds, they would flicker. What can I say???
Anyhow, it was a good WVD. We saw 6 turkeys, 2 coyotes, 40-50 horses, 20 deer, and A BEAR!!! A successful drive. We got back to the RV about 10:30, so it was a 12-hour day. And now it's 12:30 a.m., time for me to get to bed.
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