Pigeon Forge Part two

Our decision to not go into town on Sunday was a good one but we decided to do a couple of other things, firstly we went to the Great Smokey Mountains National park to check out what walking tracks were within our fitness levels. The other thing for us (Rose) to do was the clothes washing, I am no chauvinist but my sweet Rose has taken to feeding quarters into the washing machine and dryer with such zeal, I dare not interfere!

We went to the National Park and the Ranger station has the usual displays and it's interesting to see they have similar problems to what we have in Australia, that is introduced pests. One of the big ones is a bug that has all but wiped out the "ash" species of tree, such a shame. As its winter most of the trees are bare of leaves and we always comment to one another how beautiful it would look in summer and autumn.



We got the information we needed on walking tracks and would return on Tuesday to do one.

Monday we went to a place within the National Park called "Cade's Cove", we had heard about this place from a number of people and wanted to see it for ourselves. On bloke even said he had seen a bear! We set of at a reasonable hour and it was truly a beautiful drive up, we stopped many times to take photos and admire the scenery. You must keep in mind that the temperature is only just above zero so every exit from the truck required a fleece to be put on.



This next photo was taken at 11am and the ice was still there in the afternoon when we returned. The longest one was about 40 cm long.




We arrived at Cade's Cove to find its a one way loop road with many signs saying "if you want to pull over be considerate and use the lay bay spaces", well obviously no one reads them, this was going to be a very slow 9 mile drive with people stopping randomly in the middle of the road. Now we have not been here to long and we have seen our fair share of dear, they are like kangaroos, they pop up everywhere, including in your headlights towing a 30 foot fifth wheel! Anyway we are in this Congo line of cars and they keep stopping to look at these dear, not on the side of the road but half a mile into the distance, so small in fact you almost needed binoculars to see them. This goes on for miles and I keep saying to Rose I hope this stop is for a bear, nope another dear! Then salvation for Ron a sign saying basically a left here will shorten the drive by 4 miles, a quick turn of the wheel and we are out of the Congo line, yeah ha!

Another left and we are back on the main loop and yep you guessed it in another Congo line of cars which are stopped in the middle of the road! I said to Rose I hope this is for a bear and not another dam dear! Bingo the bloke in front says there is a bear in the woods walking towards us, fantastic I am like a mad tourist swapping lenses on the camera for that all elusive "bear"shot.



Here we see our first wild bear and to be honest he didn't seen to give a toss that there were 10 cars of people snapping his photo, he was more interest in the walnuts that had fallen on the ground, that good for us.

Ok we got our bear shot let's go, yep a few mores stops to look at those lovely dear and we are free to head home. All in all a great drive and we got to see what we came for.

We awoke the next morning to pouring rain and a quick look at one another said no bush walking today, we pulled the doona up and went back to sleep. We can't help the weather. Tomorrow we head off for Nashville Tennessee the Capitol of country music, we are wondering if we should drop in on Keith and Nicole?



- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Pigeon Forge Tennessee