BLACK BEARS - Frequent Visitors to Gatlinburg

The black bear, unique to America, has been studied extensively in the National Park and much has been learned about its habits and life cycle. There are estimated to be over 1,000 bears sheltering in the park’s heavily forested habitat. 

The black bear’s fur varies from shades of light to dark brown, and males are much larger than females. Although black bears are smaller than grizzlies, big browns, and polars, they can still weigh up to 400 pounds and stand six feet tall. 

Autumn, when bears forage for acorns, berries, seeds, insects, and nuts, is the most important time in a bear’s life. They need to gain three to five pounds per day to build up enough fat to see them through the winter and spring. In October or November, bears go into a deep sleep but are not totally dormant. Females give birth to one or two cubs in January or February. 

Because food is so important to them, bears are great scavengers. The black bear is a wild and highly intelligent animal and, while not usually aggressive, can be dangerous if cornered. Feeding bears or leaving food unattended is therefore a crime. Visitors must properly pack all food and dispose of scraps. Please do your part to protect these magnificent forest dwellers.

A true example of wilderness and frontier life is just blocks away from downtown Gatlinburg, on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. This 6-mile auto loop travels through time, beginning in modern Gatlinburg, then moving back to early 19th-century homesteads and finally regressing to primal, unspoiled nature. 

The trip begins on Cherokee Orchard Road. A short three miles later stands Noah “Bud” Ogle’s Place, located at the end of Cherokee Orchard and the beginning of the one-way motor loop. The Ogle homestead beautifully illustrates pioneer engineering—this was one of the few area homes of the time with running water, pumped naturally into the house via log troughs from a nearby spring. 

Part of the motor trail follows the original roadbed, which was hewed with picks and shovels in 1850. The wagon passage served as an access route to White Oak Flats (now Gatlinburg) for the 25 families who carved an existence out of these heavily forested hillsides. Three of their homesteads lie along the roadway. Of the many areas settled in the mountains, Roaring Fork was one of the most unforgiving, largely due to the boulder fields which made farming extremely difficult. 

Trails to three dramatically different waterfalls begin on the motor loop. Thousand Drips Falls, a small but nonetheless spectacular waterfall, can be seen from the road near the end of the trip; these thin streams of water have been cutting away at the bedrock for centuries.