Coming in from the Townsend, TN entrance.

We left The Wickhams’ and were headed to another of our special places to see.
Years ago, while on another hike back in CA, Amy had described a place in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A place called Cades Cove. She said it was a quiet little place, nestled in a valley. There was a loop road that went around the valley, and while driving it, you could come across turkeys, deer, beautiful singing birds, and possibly, a bear. There would be cabins, built by settlers back in the first half of the 1800’s, and little country churches.
We found it all, including a bear. And it was just as quaint and priceless as Amy described.
Jeff suggested doing the loop in the evening or early morning. When we arrived at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it was just the beginning of evening. We decided to hit the loop before checking in at the Cades Cove Campground.
We took one of two cut-offs that cut across the valley to the other side of the one-way loop. While on the cut-off, we were flagged down by a ranger. She was turning cars around because the road was temporarily closed.
The reason? There were two bears farther down the road. It seems they’d been mating, and the little lady had grown tired of the romp. Instead of feigning a headache, she clambered up a tree, knowing the big-fella was too big to pursue. Well, he might’ve been too big to follow her up, but he wasn’t too big to stay at the bottom of the tree and make a ruckus. While the ranger was getting all the other cars out of the way so we could turn around, the she bear decided she was tired of the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene and made a run for it. We never got to see them, but the ranger kept us filled in on the goings-on.
We went back to camp and got settled. Even got to enjoy a little R-n-R before the daily showers arrived. We decided to sit under the awning while it rained and play “I Spy”. That was a fun, peaceful moment.

Hammock time!

Ean and Brodee had fun building a fire.

The next morning, we got up early to see the loop. And we saw some treasures.

Great doesn’t seem grand enough for these mountains…they’re breathtaking…especially in the morning.

That’s the bear we saw. As we rounded a corner, there were a few other cars parked, watching something. It was this little one. This bear seemed like a tweenager, not full-grown. We watched it forage for a while. Then it headed off through the grass. Thank you, God, for this treat.

The church above was built in 1836. We got to go in. Amy said to be sure to sing inside one. The acoustics are so good in here, it even made our meager effort sound not so horrible.

Dogs aren’t allowed out of the vehicles, so Mel got to watch.

After driving the whole loop, we had another appointment to keep. There were some horses waiting at the Davy Crockett Riding Stables. We’d be going on a one hour ride.

The whole reason we ended up here was because Dayne saw a flier for this place at the TN Welcome Center in Chattanooga. Because of that, he got to become friends with Mufasa. Mufasa is the second biggest horse in the stables.

Brodee got to ride Batman! This horse was gas-powered…

While trying to take a picture of Ean on Doc, Doc decided he was ready for his close-up.

Dakota gave Albert a ride.

Beauty was a very mild-mannered horse. She was a sweetie.

The rest of the day was spent driving through Pigeon Forge, on our way out to Smoky Mountain Knife Works. That is a store the boys have had a catalog from, and they’d been pouring over it for months. To actually go to the store, well that was a connection that had to be made! We also got to our campground and got settled in, just as the daily rain arrived to that part of town.

We were driving right for this storm while on our way out to the knife store. It dumped on us in the parking lot!

Look who we saw here! We have a Roy exactly like this one at home. He must’ve missed us…

Some of the sights while driving through Pigeon Forge.

Be sure to look closely at this picture. Pigeon Forge seems like a family-friendly version of Vegas.

Recognize any familiar faces?