Elk in Cherokee Day 2

Due to being slightly disappointed in our lack of ability to find a herd of Elk, we decided to go back the next day.  So once again, we got up early (but again, not quite as early as we'd hoped), and drove an hour to Cherokee, NC.  This time we saw Elk, and I was able to get pictures with my camera instead of a cell phone.  We had a late breakfast at a delicious pancake place before we headed back.  However, on our way back through, a small herd of Elk was in the road, so we stopped for more pictures before we actually left.  I was so glad we tried again!  Although I will admit that I am still just slightly disappointed that we didn't see any adult males.  But I was so taken by these big, graceful creatures, one of which was so close-by that I could have walked up a pet it.  But, I always kept a safe distance from all wildlife, oftentimes using the car as a divider between me and whatever I was photographing.  As you can see, I had trouble narrowing down the pictures.  I just wanted to keep them all as I love the subtlety of movement that reflects personality.

Elk in Cherokee Day 1

One of the main goals for our vacation was to find and photograph Elk.  We knew that going to Cherokee, NC would be our best bet, so we planned to get up early, pack our lunch, and get on the road to drive the hour through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Tennessee to North Carolina.  We did not get on the road as early as we hoped, and once we arrived, we tried to find the Elk on foot.  We got too hot and uncomfortable so we abandoned our hike and hopped in the car.  We quickly spotted some Elk crossing the road, but only got some cell phone pictures.  We decided to drive around for a bit to see if we could find a herd, but we didn't have cell phone signal so we were limited in our willingness to explore too many side streets were we could have easily gotten lost.  Eventually, we got hungry and headed to a picnic area for our lunch before we headed back to the cabin.

All that said, I can't remember when these pictures were taken, and they are in the opposite order which I didn't bother to try to fix.

Miscellaneous Animals of The Great Smoky Mountains

 Most of these animals were photographed in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  I really loved the variety of wildlife we saw.  The weather or time of day often made it difficult to photograph some of them, but I decided to include some of the pictures that aren't that great because they still capture what we saw and experienced.

Mama Bear with Cub in The Great Smoky Mountains

We had decided our first morning at the cabin, we wanted to head to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to drive through Cades Cove.  In 2018, we joined my parents, siblings, and their families to a trip in the same area and we loved driving through Cades Cove, so I knew what to expect and was anxious to go again.  We were not disappointed at all!  We saw so many bears (I think it was 7 or 8), including this mama bear with her cub.  We stayed and watched them for a while as we were some of the first ones to spot them and had a great spot where we had pulled off the road.  We actually drove through Cades Cove a 4 or 5 times on this trip, but the first time was by far the best.  One of the times we went it was sprinkling, another time was early morning with fog, and another was dusk.  But even with the changing weather, it's still a lovely drive.