# Dry Camping At Cades Cove Cg, Great Smokies



## GoVols (Oct 7, 2005)

Spent 3 nights last weekend dry camping at Cades Cove CG, inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The weather was beautiful: highs in the upper 50s, lows around 30-32 degrees. We did most of our sight seeing early in the am before the crowds arrived. Saw 16 bears during our time there, including one that wandered out of the woods within 100 ft. of our campsite!







If it were not for our dog barking at him and scaring him away, he might have toured our OB!

After two nights of the furnace running with temps around freezing, I was a little concerned about the batteries -- until I put the meter on them: the batteries were at 92% of full charge!







(I forgot to measure them after the 3rd night though.)

We pulled out Monday at noon heading back to Middle TN. Later that night, a storm front brought winds clocked at over 106 mph in the park! I read in the news that the park service tried to evacuate the CG and got most folks out, but virtually all park roads were blocked by tree fall. Two campers were injured by falling trees in the CG and were evacuated to the local hospital. It was not until late Wednesday evening until the road to Cades Cove was reopened and the remaining campers could leave.


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## z-family (Oct 2, 2004)




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## sleecjr (Mar 24, 2006)

First Wow those pics are great. But Now you are rubbing it in. First cades cove is one of my favorite places, but then you see some bears!! I have been there lots of times and never seen a bear.







I WANNA SEE A BEAR!!

Glad you had a good trip. Post more pics. if you can.. Please.


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## 3LEES (Feb 18, 2006)

sleecjr said:


> First Wow those pics are great. But Now you are rubbing it in. First cades cove is one of my favorite places, but then you see some bears!! I have been there lots of times and never seen a bear.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


When I was about 8 years old (many mango moons ago), my family visited Yellowstone. We were in the park for a little over two days.

In those days, the bears frequented the dumps near the lodges. That brought them into close proximity to the human visitors. During the day they would hang out by the roads and wait for handouts. It was a dangerous situation (that they have since recitfied), but we sure saw a LOT of bears! We saw 50 bears during our time in Yellowstone.

The next time I see a bear, I hope it's from afar!

Dan


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## GoVols (Oct 7, 2005)

I have a Canon Rebel XT with a 70-300mm IS USM zoom. Since the image sensor has a 1.6X crop factor, the effective long end of the zoom is 480mm; it will really reach out there. I was about 50 yards from this bear, standing on the other side of my truck.

The mast crop in the higher elevations was poor this year, so the bears were all coming down into the valley to feed. They were literally everywhere. We started off on a hike Sunday afternoon, but barely got onto the trail when we encountered a bear. That changed our minds about the hike and we went back to the campground!


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## nonny (Aug 14, 2005)

When we were there this summer, folks 3 cars ahead of us saw a bear in a tree. We missed it! Glad you missed the very bad weather.


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## Yianni (Aug 30, 2006)

JT,
We just came back from our first trip with 6 volt batteries. You are right, they are awesome. We were on the California coast. We had the heater at 68 every night (4 days) and the batteries never fell below 2 thirds. The generator never came out the whole trip.
Your neck of the woods looks great.

Lou


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

I am glad you enjoyed your dry camping. Love the pictures









Thor


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## WILKINS3 (Feb 1, 2006)

Great photos! Glad you had a good time and was able to leave before the wethaer set in.


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## bentpixel (Sep 2, 2006)

Great story. Great pics. 
Can't show them to DW.









She wants to go there soooooo bad. We're not exactly next door neighbors.









Scott


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

This message brought to you by Trojan.....the _other _ protection


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## Katrina (Dec 16, 2004)

California Jim said:


> This message brought to you by Trojan.....the _other _ protection


^^^^ Now thats funny right there!!! I don't care who you are!!! ^^^^


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