Smokey Mountain National Park Reopens - Visiting Cade's Cove

[Applause] hey you all carpetbagger here coming to you live from the South we're specifically right outside of Townsend Tennessee I am at the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park now during this recent unpleasantness that we've all been experiencing around the world things have been shut down the states have been locked down and the national parks have been locked down but just recently they have reopened the Great Smoky Mountains National Park so very excited to see that open I think being able to get outside being able to get fresh air I think it's very good for people both physically and mentally good for your mental health to be outside in the fresh air as well as it's good to get exercise of course you know it is a large area so we have to we can practice social distancing I think relatively easy not today we're gonna drive into a section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park known as Cades Cove it is a old historic settlement that was abandoned and it happens to be to have one of the densest population of black bear in the world I forget exactly what the ratio is but per-square-mile has the most densest population of black bear so hopefully I cannot promise you but hopefully we'll get a glance at a bear or maybe some other type of Wildlife we're gonna head in to Kate's Cove in just a few minutes here so please follow me [Music] see some rock stacking it's a very talented rock stacking right there and see that mountain water it's very very clear you can see almost the bottom there it's actually fairly deep these stones here by the river all right we're now entering Cades Cove so here is a map of Cades Cove it is a 11 mile one-way drive around this loop there's various old buildings along the way cabins churches and hopefully a bunch of wildlife and as you can see people are slowing down kind of a traffic jam that tends to happen people want to take a long scenic drive so there does tend to be a lot of backup on Cades Cove you can see there's quite a row of cars ahead of us if there's an excessive amount of cars sometimes that means that there's actually some wildlife spotted actually wondered since kids go has been closed for two months one of the more Bears have been coming out with no people they have the run of the place so hopefully we'll see something the rules are you got to stay back 50 yards or as that sign says you can be injured or killed see the creeks running over the road there I think that's called a fjord right all right we're feuding feuding the creeks there our first stop is just a short walk to the John Oliver cabin of course no relation to the British political TV host at least I don't think so just a fireplace there a little Harry Potter room under the stairs guess you can actually go up the stairs here although I don't know what is up here down this little side street we have the Primitive Baptist Church whoops here we have the Cades Cove Primitive Baptist Church originally founded in 1827 they still have all the pews in here there's the pulpit and up here at the pulpit appropriately they have a Bible back behind the church we have a whole Cemetery here's something I can never remember I know the difference between a cemetery and the graveyard one of them is connected to a church and one of them is freestanding but I can never remember which is which is it a cemetery or a graveyard that is connected to a church and which one is freestanding the grave of Russell Gregory calendar of Gregory's bald that said about 1839 hundred percent sure but about 1830 he was murdered by North Carolina rebels I always find it interesting on the old graves one actually gives the cause of death it actually says murdered on his gravestone what's interesting is even though this area has not been populated for quite some time there's some relatively modern gravestones back here these this lady here was buried 1995 and this grape is only from 2009 I can imagine I guess these were just family plots way back see these gravestones back here very old see if they're weathered away to just thin pieces of stone here we come across another church this is the Cades Cove Methodist Church there is a it does appear to be in the pundits of churches in Cades Cove appears that there's actually more churches than houses notice there's two doorways to the church that actually the reason for that is actually that previously men and women would enter on different sized men what's in a one side of the church and women would sit on the other see they have a pulpit in here as well this piano piano appears to be missing a a little bit of the ivory it's still plays pretty good though have some hymnals here [Applause] some people have left some some letters or declarations of faith oh it's just light that look the I can't read music but music looks pretty doesn't it back behind the church is another cemetery or graveyard portion over you see a grave with a lamb on it usually indicates that it was a very young child that passed away yeah you can see that traffic jam goes on for miles and miles and miles yeah you never think you'd see this many cars out in the middle of the woods look at this we have one more church this is the Cades Cove Missionary Baptist Church do like the inside of this church I think thee this alcove where the pulpit is it's pretty cool got some wild flowers growing in amongst the graves I've been sitting in traffic here quite some time hoping that maybe this is a bear jam maybe a bears has clogged up traffic yeah people are definitely stopping for something it's not sure what because folks back there said there is some bears in the field let's see if we can see if we can find them okay let's see if we can oh yeah you see them back there there's like a mother bear and like three cubs it looks like I'd love to get closer need a better shot of them but you know it is a mother bear with Cubs she could probably eat my face off we don't want that to happen oh look you can see the little baby poked its head up there for a second mom looking around little babies following her a lot of people stopping pulling offside the row and getting a view of the Bears oh there's some deer we're gonna cross the field right there all right so we found some bear and I am very relieved you know so a few times I've come out here or I've not seen a bear and that is very disappointing you see you have to drive at least 30 45 minutes from any populated area just to get to Cades Cove and then you got that 11 mile loop that you you know you're going 510 miles per hour so you're putting a lot of time here when you go out to Cades Cove so you really want to you really want to count you really want to see a bear and we can check that off the list saw bear saw four bears now that route of the bigger jam things are moving a little bit faster it's a little deer right there okay there buddy be done where's your flock where your herd or what's a group of deer called it's a think it think it's a herd this building here is normally the gift shop and visitor center now that still is closed because of the unpleasantness fortunately the bathroom area is open as anyone who was around during the government shutdown of the national parks knows you definitely want to keep the bathrooms open to work people will explore other options terrible horrible deplorable options it parked very busy on its opening weekend here as you can see from the immense amount of trash if that can't close those bears they're gonna have a feast yeah Oh gotta be careful there's some snakes lurking around a larger house right there Oh says Rebecca Cable better known as Aunt Becky yes not the Aunt Becky from Full House said this I guess this was her house so this is the Aunt Becky houses she bought this house 1887 and lived here until 1940 when she passed away so the wood stove in here it's an interesting barn back here you see how there's like a loft connecting the two sides there this ancient wagon right there it's falling apart a little bit see the grist mill right there and that wheel isn't turning that you can see that there is water flowing down from it see this big trough here leads over to the grist mill we can take a peek inside that's interesting the water runs down here towards out that hole I guess some of it continues on the mill to turn that wheel now look at some of this old farm equipment here old wagon back in there oh yeah they even have some bits of pointy equipment left behind this is a wild hog trap actually do see these placed around the Smoky Mountains the wild hogs actually are invasive species and they're they they brought them over from England so they could hunt them but they they tear up the ground they rip everything up this kind of ruin it for everyone it shows how rapidly that hogs reproduce I guess for every two dear mama deer has and for every two cubs a mama bear has hogs have a million babies looks like we got another backup here we'll see if we get to see more bears okay there's some sort of dog there I don't know if that's a coyote I think coyote or a wolf hey there he's got a lot of people watching him he looks looks like he may be a little intimidated so I'm off there if you can't enter what kind of animal that is is that a coyote it's a wolf that we do have some species of wolves out here but Wow a poor thing it's pretty nervous again I wish I could identify what type of animal that was something definitely the canine family but are now I saw someone feeding it which is highly illegal I hope jumped over the first I think he's think he's headed home uh-oh looks like we got another bear jam yep got another bear out there in the field it's a bigger one that may be a Papa Bear just poking along being a bear not bothering everyone she's going about his bear business it's like he's looking looking over here at the paparazzi you think this is our final cabin this is the Dan Lawson cabin I'll be a bedroom there let's uh pick up these stairs so the Sun sets on the Smoky Mountain National Park great to see the National Park back open and great to have a chance to visit Cades Cove like I said I get nervous at Cades Cove because it is a huge investment of time I think I think we were there about the over the courses video I was here for about four and a half hours and you know I was really nervous somebody even get to see a bear I was gonna spend four and a half hours plus probably an hour and a half of drive time to get here but probably more than that I was going to be very very sad but we saw some bears we saw a total of four bears we saw that the canine animal I wish I knew I wish I could say what it was I I would look it up on my phone right now but I am very far from having any sort of reception so let me know anyone out there can identify that animal was it a coyote was it a wolf was it a fox what what was it just I'd love I'd love to get some opinions on what that was so I'm gonna continue to document what is reopening around here you know of other parts of Tennessee open up hope to to bring that to you if you'd like to see other places that I've been please check the interactive map in the description of this video it'll show you all there in places I've been and you can tell me where I need to go next also if you'd like to help support the channel consider donating to patreon three dollars or more will get you a postcard once a month but until next time this one's in the bag

Channel: The Carpetbagger

Views: 59,252

Keywords: the, carpetbagger, smoky mountain, smokey mountain, smokie mountain, national park, cade's cove, bear, deer, coyote, red wolf, nature, stream, history, historical, gatlinburg, tn, tennessee

Id: 29pAYsOwfOA

Length: 21min 54sec (1314 seconds)

Published: Tue May 12 2020