If you don’t want anyone to find you or don’t want to know what is going on in the world, Cade’s Cove National Forest is the place for you! You can totally unplug from a hectic life out here. This is great….for a few days. It is hard to work or answer any customer calls when you don’t have a cell signal. HA! Ok..back to the beauty of this place.
We had one major goal when visiting the cove. That goal was to see a Black Bear. We drove around the cove in the early afternoon. We saw a lot of different wildlife; deer, birds, butterflies, turkey, and horses. No bears. 
They were even conducting a controlled burn in the cove. We pulled over and chatted with Firewoman Jen for a bit. My daughter was excited to see a lady doing this super cool job. She said it is better for them to burn the brush and invasive species of plants in a way they can control rather than letting nature do it on it own when things can get out of control very fast.
Jack was happy to visit the old houses and barns. I think he let his imagination run wild about how the people used to live on these lands and in houses with no indoor plumbing!
So..we spent a couple of hours out in the cove and had no bear sightings. Chad suggested we go around one more time as it was getting to be dusk. We know animals become more active in the evening time. So around we went…again. This time, we were able to go down by the old baptist church. It was closed off the first time because of the controlled burn. Chad, Jack, and Maggie walked around the old church and graveyard for a bit. Jack was saddened by all of the children in the graveyard. We headed back down to the main road and there it was! The bear we had been looking for this whole trip. He (or she) had a pretty brown face and a great big booty! I wish I could have gotten a picture of him but we were too excited looking at him with our own eyes.
Bear sighting at Cade’s Cove was a success. It is now time to move on to a new location, preferably one with cell phones and internet!
