You know how I love the Park

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, that is.  We spent three days in and around the park and the thing that made the greatest impression on me was the GREEN.  When you live in Northern California, you learn to appreciate things that are green, like trees, grass, bushes, and water (because it's reflecting the green from the trees, grass, and bushes). 

Our first excursion into the park was to drive the Cades Cove Loop road, an 11-mile one-way road back into history and into a place where, except for the massive numbers of motor vehicles, time seems to have stopped. 

There are three old churches along the Loop, at least one of which looks like it's still being used.

and several examples of 19th century log cabins and fences

The biggest attraction, though, is the animals.  We didn't see that many, maybe it was the time of day (around 6pm), but we did see these:

and this little guy created one heck of a "bear jam"

I would love to go back in the fall when the leaves are changing.  I hope we get the opportunity soon.