One day this past Fall, Kaye and I decided to go hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I got online and found Gregory Bald. For those that don’t know or haven’t been hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gregory Bald is a mountain on the western fringe of the Great Smoky Mountains. It has an elevation of 4,949 feet (1,508 meters) above sea level. The mountain’s majestic summit makes it a popular hiking destination.

Gregory Bald is located along the Tennessee-North Carolina border, between Blount County and Swain County. It rises approximately 3,000 feet above its northern base in Cades Cove, and approximately 3,300 feet above its southern base at Fontana Lake. The mountain is located entirely within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

We decided to take Gregory Ridge Trail which begins at the end of Forge Creek Road and is a 5.5 mile trail to the summit. Forge Creek Road is a gravel road on the Cades Cove Loop just past the Cable Mill area, at the very back corner. Which means you have to sit and wait behind all the people stopping on the road to take a picture of a tree or a twig. Really people… Really?

The hike up wasn’t that bad, though we were worried when we only saw two other cars in the parking area. Either this is a trail that a lot of people don’t care to climb or bears are eating everyone and hijacking their cars and using them in drive by maulings. I’m going to go with the first, though the amount of bear scat really had me wondering about bear activity. They warned that during late fall when the blackberries and raspberries were out on top of Gregory Bald that bear activity was increased.

The tortuous thing about this hike was that after about 3.5 miles every new crest felt like it was going to be the summit, but when you got there you only realized there was another crest. Down and up, around hills, over multiple crests, a couple streams and we finally hit the sign saying Gregory Bald was just ahead. Actually just ahead was .6 miles that felt like another 3 miles but making it this far there was no way we were turning back.

As we made it to the top of Gregory Bald we realized it was well worth the hike. Even on a partly cloudy day the views were breathtaking. It was so peaceful on the summit. No other hikers (we passed the other hikers so we knew they didn’t get eaten by bears) were up there. Kaye and I were able to just walk around and take in the scenery. Though while relaxing I decided to take some pictures. As I was taking a picture of Kaye, I froze up and was telling her not to move… just don’t move. I imagine she thought it was a bear due to the amount (and size) of the bear scat on the summit, but it turned out to be a doe walking up behind her. It walked right up to both of us and took a good sniff (though after sweating all day I’m surprised it didn’t kill the deer right there). We just sat and took pictures while it walked around us.

Pleased with our bonding with nature we decided to head on back down. We were almost back to the truck, about a mile, when we ran into a large black bear. Luckily we scared it and it took off into the woods. I’ve never seen one run, but have always heard that you can’t outrun one so don’t even try. After seeing how fast that bear hit the woodline I now agree completely with that statement. If that bear would have charged me I doubt I’d have had time to realize I just dropped a load in my pants let alone Smokey the Bear was using my arm as a beef jerky treat.
After that we stopped by a log cabin on the way out and a little coyote pup came right up to us. It came right up to the truck and stood there and watched Kaye and I walk over to the cabin. As cute as he looked he probably would have eaten my face off (My FACE!), but luckily he decided he wouldn’t.