First Smokies tick of the year found in Cades Cove

Ticks are probably the most unwelcome resident of the Great Smoky Mountains national park and I just found one this week after hiking on a deer path near the swamp just north of the Abrams Falls trailhead in Cades Cove.

Driving along the Cades Cove Loop Road I spotted a lone deer gallivanting around in Abrams Creek. Seeing that the sun was setting soon and everything around me was getting the warm glow that the "golden hour" gives off I decided to circle around the deer path to photograph this beauty with this pretty background.

Stealthily I walked along on the path but the white tailed deer left far before I was close enough to photograph him. I still took a shot of the leaves and light reflecting on the water of Abrams Creek - sans deer and returned to my car.

Out of habit I checked my legs and low and behold, I found the first tick of the season in the Great Smoky Mountains national park.

What does this mean? Well since North Carolina is the Rocky Mountains spotted fever capital on the United States, it means that during tick season it is important that hikers and campers use insecticide with DEET and check themselves for ticks after being outdoors.

If ticks are removed in less than an hour after they have attached themselves to you, you are usually ok.

The picture below is recycled from last year when I wrote an article with information about ticks in the Great Smoky Mountains national park and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. It's well worth checking out.

Peak Fall Color Season is here in the Smokies

The colors in the Smoky Mountains is amazing and is right now at peak for this autumn in both Tennessee and North Carolina and all I have been doing the past week has been chasing the best colors and hiking all around the Great Smoky Mountains national park.

The weather here in the Smoky Mountains has been amazing - even the day of light snow we received in the upper elevations was cold enough for some light accumulation but certainly not uncomfortable and the next day it warmed right up, slowly enough to let the snow linger and fast enough to hike dressed lightly.

I have spent only 3 days in the North Carolina side and the other time herein Tennessee where the fall colors are a bit behind.

So far nothing I have examined other than some spots along Newfound Gap Road on the North Carolina side, the tops of Le Conte and the highest points of the Appalachian Trail are in the final days of fall colors. Due to heavy evergreen growth on the tops of Le Conte and the AT they are wonderful year round - maybe even prettier with some light snow.

Most of the snow is now gone except in the shaded areas in higher elevations in the highest parts of the park. On Friday 2 of the walls along Clingmans Dome Road were shrouded in ice for the sunrise and even though the sun was just spreading its warm glow against the rock walls chunks were already breaking off and crashing to the ground below.

In regard to wildlife sightings in the Great Smoky Mountains national park, it has been anything other than average for me. Plenty of bear in Roaring Fork but outside of Roaring Fork I only saw 3 in a week. I normally see that many a day this time of year.

Speaking of bear I am amazed that in the Sinks parking area which clearly has active bear warnings posted in 2 places that the garbage was overflowing so that the lids in all three containers would not shut.

I found a large stick and mashed down what I could to get the bear proof lids closed. When I returned from hiking the Meigs Creek Trail it was overflowing again. I tracked down a park employee and had them radio it in.

Shame on the irresponsible persons who did this rather than packing out their garbage as they endangered other visitors as well as the bear. The park service has to watch these trash receptacles more carefully while there are such bear problems in the park - even with the lack of funds they have as this is the 4th garbage incident I have seen and reported in the past week.

Beside the most unbelievable hiking and driving in the Smoky Mountains, I had 2 other outstanding experiences, hiking with Smokies Scout and taking the guided hay ride in Cades Cove on the Sunset run.

Hiking with the Smokies Scout was wonderful and for the fist time in my Smoky Mountains hiking career I actually did a shuttle hike. We rode up Newfound Gap Road during sunrise and stopped to take pictures on an overlook on the North Carolina side and the ice along the side of the road in Clingmans Dome Road.

Our hike took us from Clingmans Dome Road where we were bundled up, hat gloves and the like with snow on the ground and ended up eventually in the Lakeshore area - where I was down to a T shirt.

Our hike which was mostly downhill also took us up and back down the Springhouse Branch Trail. They day and the fall colors were amazing. We went from full blown out peak to dark green and light green areas just waiting to change. Sometime hiking up we went back in season - go figure.

The Cades Cove hay ride I took was far better than I would have ever expected and will go into more detail in another post. The hay ride was on the last day it ran this year, and it was the last time the present concessioner who had run this service for the last 40 plus years took visitor around the Cove as a new concessioner takes over in the spring.

Well I am off to chase more color and I think it will be my routine for the next 2 weeks!

Elk rut in full swing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Since the North American elk have been reintroduced in the Great Smoky Mountains national park in the Cataloochee section near Maggie Valley, the best time to come see the elk is during the annual rut.

During the elk rut male bull elks fight for territory and collect a harem so they may mate with as many females as possible.

The elk rut is now in full season and as seen in the picture above taken today of 2 bull elk sparing the elk rut it is a spectacle no one should miss.

Expect the peak of the elk rut last until at least Mid October with other mating behavior a few weeks longer.

Related Elk in the GSMNP Stories

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park Elk Poaching Suspect Confesses and Arrest is Emanate
• Elk poaching takes place in Cataloochee Valley in the Great Smoky Mountains national park.
• Elk Reintroduction in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park needs more Volunteers for Elk Bugle Corp Program

2007 Smoky Mountains leaf color change season peak

Leaf color changes thought the Smokies have just passed their peak but there will be plenty of color in the leaves of the trees and the mountainsides for weeks to come in Tennessee as well as in North Carolina.

In the Tennessee Smoky Mountains there are still plenty of trees still in the green phase but most have turned into light green, yellows, oranges and flaming reds giving a nice contrast to the tans and browns of leaves that changed colors sooner.

Last weeks cooler temperatures helped move things along in Tennessee’s leaf season and driving down Newfound Gap Road (441) from the North Carolina side by the 7 mile marker the riot of color in the leaves really show off. Of course now day by day this will work its way down to the lower elevations.

I have still found tons of great color in all of the hikes I have done in Cades Cove, Elkmont, Tremont, Greenbrier, Sugarlands and even Crosby this week and see that the oaks and the maples have at least another 2 weeks more color left in them.

Just as in real estate the key word is location. Some of the road sides are now past peak but once you wander in to the valleys or look up the side of the mountains you can see the yellows, green, reds and browns that make the Smokies a great place to see autumn colors.

While the peak has passed sooner in North Carolina there are still tremendous pockets of fall colors with hardwood trees now showing their flashy colors. Trees in some of the higher elevations have lost most of their leaves and the last few days’ rain has knocked off any of the leaves that were about to fall.

Hiking along ridge lines yesterday in North Carolina as well as driving along the Blueridge parkway I still found eye-popping colors and spectacular views everywhere.

Today may see some snow flurries in the upper elevations with little or no accumulations making for some spectacular pictures. No more snow is predicted for the next week.

If you are planning on coming to the Smokies in the next week or 2 you won’t miss out on the spectacular fall colors – just most of the traffic!

Black bears are very active in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Although there have been no recent attacks by black bear in the Great Smoky Mountains Nations Park (GSMNP), some visitors are pushing their luck given how active the black bear are in this the most active bear season of the year.

The best way to handle yourself when you see a black bear is to stay as far away as possible and never let the bear think that you are a threat to the bear or its cubs which may be close by and out of your sight. You should however act as a threat of you can not get away and are about to be attacked by a bear.

Fall season in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is usually a very active bear season which is a treat to the Millions of visitors who come to visit the park and hopefully get a glimpse or even get to take a picture or shoot video of the symbolic icon animal of the Smoky Mountains.

In the fall, the black bear in the park are in a race against time trying to gather as much food as possible before they slow down and become inactive for the winter. Black bear in the national park don't hibernate in caves during the winter as for all practical purposes there are no caves in the national park other than a sealed off cave in Cades Cove and 2 caves in the White Oak Sinks area of the park between Tremont and Cades Cove.

Black Bear in the GSMNP instead nest in hollows of trees or in a hollow tree. Bears can most often be seen high up in trees rather than on the ground. The tree in the National Park most favored by the black bear are oak trees both for the acorns they provide as food and for the shelter the older large oak trees provide to the bear.

The black bear in the fall typically eat as many nuts, berries, grasses and forbs and insects and other animals including carrion it can in an attempt to fatten up and can put on as much as 4 - 5 pounds of winter weight a day.

The female black bears will winter pregnant and the size of a litter is often dependent to the volume and quality of food the black bear acquires during the fall active season. Black bears typically have 2 or 3 cubs in a good year and just 1 or no cubs at all after a year with a limited or harder harvest.

This year's drought which has heavily affected the Smoky Mountains and the natural food stock of the black bear so the resident bears are very active in order to find the food that they need. Just don't get between a hungry bear and its food!

One of the most common questions visitors to the National park ask me is "Where can I find the most black bear in the park?" Traveling extensively through the backcountry and developed areas in both the North Carolina and Tennessee sections of the National Park I have found that the best areas of the national park to find a black bear are: The Roaring Fork section of the park by Gatlinburg Tennessee, Cades Cove typically between Sparks Lane and Hyatt Lane in the edge of the woods, backcountry areas between Cosby TN a Big Creek NC, and along the Gatlinburg Bypass on the way to Pigeon Forge. This bypass referred to as the spur will often have bear walking right across the road.

This week I have already counted 22 black bear in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park:

• 8 along the road leading into the Roaring Fork Area before the Ogle Cabin
• 1 on the old Sugarland Trail between Roaring Fork and the Sugarlands
• 2 in the Greenbrier section on trail along the way to campground 32
• 2 in Big Cataloochee NC on the Boogerman trail near the stone walls
• 1 in Big Cataloochee NC in the back field near the old cemetery on the hill.
• 1 in Deep Creek NC Parking area
• 3 in Cades Cove area on the Scott Mountain Trail
• 2 in Cades Cove area on the Gregory Bald longer trail
• 1 in Cades Cove in woods off Hyatt Lane
• 1 in Cosby TN on the Hens Wallow Falls trail at the second fork

Although I am only counting 8 bear on Roaring Fork, the same bear I have seen 9 or 10 times I only counted as 1. I can almost guarantee that if you go to Roaring Fork in the next few days early in the morning or before sunset you will see at least 3 or 4 bear.

Unfortunately many people who are watching or photographing the black bear are not acting wisely chasing the bear up the side of the hill, whistling to get the bears attention or just stopping their car and parking in the middle of the road. All of these are forbidden behavior and illegal and can result in death or serious injury.

Bear jams are so common right now in the Roaring Fork area that often there are now up to 2 officers trying to keep park visitors under control so no one gets attacked by a black bear or hit by a driver paying attention to the bear and not the road.

My favorite is the foolish man pictured here who kept climbing the hill chasing a mother bear with her cubs and taking pictures with a camera phone. He lucky left without being attacked by the momma black bear that had her 2 cubs along for the feast of acorns on the ground and before the National Park enforcement officer arrived. Imagine risking death, dismemberment or arrest to take a poor quality picture with his cellphone that he will probably erase or lose within a year or so. Was it worth it?

The bear are fun to watch but please pay attention to the national park black bear regulations and safety rules!