Nature gets a little too Close

We stopped in Gatlinburg, TN to spend the night and do some early morning hiking before we went on to Knoxville, TN for some business reasons.

We woke up at 6am and got on the trail about 6:45am. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to be in the mountains in the early morning. So peaceful and the mountain air helps keep the sweating down.

We saw a lot of wildlife that morning like chipmunks and birds, but did not expect to see two baby bears!

I was a little afraid because 1) I just read an article about a hiker get mauled to death by a mother grizzly bear in Yellowstone 2) One of the cubs was a small baby, at first I thought it was a fox, and I did not see the mother anywhere and 3) we were very close to these bears...a little too close for comfort

I was ready to get out of there, but Brad made me take a picture. I was having a hard time taking the picture because the camera wouldn't focus with my shaky hands.

So here is the larger bear cub...

Here are a few of us before we had our bear encounter..