A Step Into the Past

Yesterday we were greeted with a rainy start to the day but it rewarded us with sunny skies and beautiful weather around 10ish. We went back to Cades Cove to check out the mountain village there and the buildings. We walked around and checked it out. Of course, being a weekend, it was dreadfully crowded, but that's okay. We saw the local wildlife:  a bear and her two cubs (another "bear jam") and two snakes at an old house. There was a blacksmithy, working grist mill, and other outbuildings. We saw two cantilever barns (two overhangs on the side and space in the middle you can drive through). Apparently, that was pretty reasonable and proper here in the early 1900s. I thought it was really cool that you could wake up every day and go to sleep seeing that wonderful view. But I wondered, if they had to work all the time, did they ever really enjoy it?  Anyway, here are some of the pics we took. The bear and her cubs were pretty far away (they don't like you to get closer than 500 feet of the bear) so all you see are black shapes. Tomorrow we head to Smokemont. Maybe we'll see some elk (yes, elk in NC--who knew?). Enjoy!