Joan Gets Her Bear!

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Cade's Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Cade's Cove is yet another section of the park, located in the northwestern corner. To get there from our campground required a ninety minute drive up and over Newfound Gap Road, to Sugarland Visitor Center and then west on the Laurel Canyon Road up and over some other mountains until we arrived at a small information center. At this point, the road becomes a one-way, 11 mile loop. The road is barely wide enough for a single car and the speed limit is just 10 mph.

Along the loop are restored examples of homes, barns, churches and other buildings as they existed more than a century ago. This part of the park attempts to tell the story of how the Appalachian mountains were settled and farmed in the 1800s and early 1900s. The oldest building is a home dating back to 1820 and there are many more going back at least 150 years. Of course, the NPS has restored these structures, so only parts of them are as originally built, but they've done a good job of making things look naturally old.

History buffs will get a real kick out of the stories told by these remaining structures - how people lived and died, got married, had kids. There is even a cemetery or two with headstones naming the people who occupied those buildings. Apparently, in the summer months, park volunteers dress up in period costume and act out life as it might have been at the time, sort of like a Williamsburg spread over many square miles.

I was more interested in the natural history of this place and in exactly what a 'cove' is. A popular definition is that it is a sheltered valley. But, geologically, it is much more than that. The Great Smokies were formed when layers of older metamorphic and sandstone rocks were thrust up and over younger rocks, much of them variations of limestone. A cove forms when the upper, older rock layers weather away exposing the younger rock that used to lie underneath it. This younger rock, being made of limestone, weathers to a much richer soil than the older rocks. So what results is a very lush pocket on the floor of a valley surrounded by older, and less nutritious rock. The end result is a very different forest.

You can see the differences when you drive out of the mountains onto the floor of the cove. The lower forests are much thicker and a lighter green in color because they contain a much more diverse forest of birch, beech, magnolia, hickory, poplar and several other tree types all in a mixed forest. This is in contrast to the northern hardwood forests which have a mix of simpler, hardier trees and not nearly as dense. The cove forests are incredible to drive through because of all the dense green around you with leaves in so many shapes and colors.

I've noted before how this park is the most visited of any of the parks in the country. Part of that is probably because so much of the park is visible from the road. Here in Cade's Cove, they make the road an important part of the experience. It is difficult to imagine, though, how many more cars could make this drive. We are here in the off season and the crowds are already so big that it starts to take away from the enjoyment of the park. There are parking lots at each of the stops on the Cade's Cove Loop Road, but they only hold maybe a couple dozen cars at the most. Extra cars attempt to spill out onto road shoulders, but the park doesn't encourage that because of the damage it can cause to vegetation. So there is a battle for parking spaces at many of these spots that must become very ugly in the summer high season.

Then there is the wildlife. When someone spots something the rule of thumb is just to stop the vehicle and watch it. That, of course, stops everyone behind you, many of whom don't see what you might be seeing. That then leads to cars half-on and half-off the roadway as people abandon their vehicles to see the animal and snap pictures. It is an example of semi-controlled social chaos! Hopefully, the park service will continue its ban on firearms in the parks!

It was at one of these chaos spots that Joan finally got her bear. We came around a corner at a speedy ten mph to see a congregation of cars angled in multiple directions. Carefully, we threaded through the maze to get closer to the front where everyone was pointing off in the same direction. There, ambling through the fields next to the tree was a mama black bear. It was about 100 yards away, but Joan could make out the eyes and face. That was the definition of a 'close encounter' with a bear. Then, we saw little black blobs up in the tree starting to come down. So we get to count them too - a Mama bear and her two cubs. Eventually, the bears moved too far away to make out any details, folks packed up their cameras, got back into their cars, and the mess of car parts on the roadway got sorted out.

It took nearly two hours to drive the 11 mile loop road. When we were done, we found a nearby picnic table and enjoyed cold fried chicken in the forest. Although there must have been at least fifty tables at that picnic area, I believe people might be fighting for those spaces in the summer time.

After lunch and a walk with the dogs, we ventured back over Laurel Falls Road, and then back to the campground. It had been raining again on this side of the mountain, but let up for dinner and the evening. I made a greens and beans dinner and Joan got a campfire going. We watched the fire with a glass of wine and called it a day. (17.1.76)

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Photos

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Church and Cemetery in Cade's Cove

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Mountains and Clouds

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From the Cove looking up to the surrounding mountains

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This is off season, and there's a line of people headed to the oldest building in the park.

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Cemeteries are always interesting.

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Another view of the bottom of the cove.

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Grasslands being preserved by the park.