Grandson David drove visiting blogger Kim and me into the Cataloochee Valley, a tiny part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This is our national park with the most visitors every year. On the way, we stopped at an overlook with a sweeping view of the area.
Driving on, we went toward the end of the valley and found people staring and photographing the herd of elk. David and Kim joined in.
These are the animals they were looking at, grazing in the field.
We crossed the road to go through a house built in 1903, one left there after all the residents were moved when the park took over the land. I didn't take a picture of the house this time, but I did take one of the cold house as Kim stood at the entrance. To keep things cool, the residents lowered food into the stream through an opening in the floor.
While we were looking at the cold house, the elk were moving through the valley. Behind the single elk, you can see the graveled area where David's car was parked. We had crossed the stream on that footbridge and now were cut off. Park rules are to keep well away from the animals. Although they look as peaceful as grazing cows, they are wild animals and unpredictable. For the most part, the elk pay no attention to vehicles on this road. The truck was traveling from the end of the valley back to the entrance.
On the right side of this video, you can briefly see the white house on the hill where we had been. At this point, we had waited quite a while before crossing the bridge and standing on the road.
On the way out of the valley, we stopped to look at a bear-proof garbage bin. David put his hand in the pocket on top and pushed a bar forward to release the catch. He explained that bears cannot turn their paws over to reach into that protected area.
We were thrilled to have watched the elk for a long time, up close.
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