Smokies Spring 2022 Trip, Part 1

The trip started rough with the normally 6 hour drive taking me 7.5 hours mainly because of three major traffic back ups. It was great to be back in my happy place. And it was the tail end of the car show. We stayed at the Wild Bear Inn which is on the main road through Pigeon Forge so it was a loud night due to the supped up mufflers on many trucks. It was quite annoying.

On our first full day in the Smokies we had originally planned to go to the Apple Barn but found out it did not open until 8am so we ended up going to Denny’s. We did go to a few different gift shops and spent money on souvenirs. Shocking I know.

One of the places we shot was Little River off the main road on the way to Cades Cove. Due to the amount of rain, it was a rough climb down but we got some great shots. There was a traffic back up in Cades Cove due to Bear sighting which would become a theme during our visit all week.

Our first bear sighting of the week was on Rich Mountain Road of a sow and 3 cubs. We ended up shooting her and the cubs a couple different times. At one point, she did stomp her front paws and huff at me. It was quite surprising because I was no where near her cubs, she was probably just sick of me taking photos of her.

We decided to have dinner at the Old Mill Restaurant in Pigeon Forge. The highlight of our afternoon was a woman driving down the road with a red bra hanging from her side mirror. You can’t make this stuff up.