Smoky Mountain National Park - Cades Cove

We stayed nearly 2 weeks in Cades Cove Campground, on the Tennesee side of GSMNP, also making a brief visit to the eastern side in Cherokee, North Carolina. Cades Cove is fabulous for both historical value and wildlife viewing; though Elkmont campground is also nice, I highly recommend Cades Cove CG for it's proximity to the cove loop. At night, the 11-mile loop is closed to vehicles, so we made some late evening / full moon bike rides, where we once had a very close encounter of the bear kind (bear cub ran right in front of Gary's bike while mama bear shuffled up a tree right next to my head!)....yikes....but all was fine. We loved the cove, and also had some less "intense" bear viewings, plus lots of deer, wild turkey, and a brief encounter with a Red Wolf. Red wolves were reintroduced in GSMNP in the 1990's, but interbreeding with Coyotes caused the park service to cancel the program; most rangers will tell you that all the wolves were trapped and removed, but one admitted to me there are still some remaining, and particularly some coyote-red wolf crosses. What I saw was definitely not Coyote. But it was so shy and fast, there was brief eye contact from 30 feet away and then it was gone; even if I'd had my camera on that hike, I would not have got a shot.

Here's Gary riding on the Cades Cove loop; note the beautiful dogwoods which were plentiful.

This momma bear had a hard time convincing her 3 young cubs to come out of the tree; she had to climb up and nudge them. We had a great show from the cove road 50 yards away as she coaxed them down and walked them across the field into the woods.