Drama in Cades Cove

Wednesday July 11, 2018                                                                               Most Recent Posts:
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I hitch another ride with Nancy and Bill to Cades Cove early this morning to take advantage of their Wednesday and Saturday mornings of  ‘roads closed to cars’ summer policy.  I really do prefer to walk the roads even over biking them.  I see so much more.

It’s such a beautiful location.  I can only imagine how heart broken the people of this community must have been to have to leave it. 

The herd of horses is gathered near the barn in the distance awaiting grain for breakfast I suppose.  You can take trail rides here from the stables if you wish.

My camera was not performing well in this morning’s light and haze so Nancy graciously shared her much better pictures.  Hers are watermarked.

As I’ve found it every morning I’ve come, it’s a bit misty although not as totally fogged today in as some mornings but still the colors in my pictures reflect the situation until later on when the fog burns off.

The genesis of “horsing around”.

This lovely thing is called the Wild Potato Vine, obviously a memeber of the Morning Glory family.  It likes to entwine itself on the fences along the road.

Some sort of Mountain Mint is also growing along the fence row.  I always want to wipe the dust off of its grayish leaves so they will be green even though I know that’s just their color.

Across the field, near the horse barn, the turkeys are more interested in this dried out pile of hay than the horses.  Not that I blame them.

Something is going on in the field and we stop to watch this deer with her head, ears and tail in alert.  

Whatever it is, she’s spooked.

And then we see it.

Even the buck on the other side of the road seems to know something is going on.

Here comes the coyote.

This is really about the best picture I got of him.  He crossed back and forth across the road pickinig up the scent.

Once he’s spotted her, he’s off.

On the other side of the road, it’s head for the hills.

Nancy was able to capture the chase with her much faster camera so thanks to her, I’ll  let her pictures tell the story of what we saw. 

Now they spot each other.

Things are getting tense.

He’s running her ragged.  We later speculate that she may have been trying to keep him away from some young ones as it almost seemed that she would go back toward him.   She kept going to and then away from this mid field fence.

At this point, they are face to face.

She must be exhausted before this chase even began

Eventually they ran out of our sight with him literally nipping at her heels.  We didn’t feel very good about her chances or those of her young ones if there were any.  It was amazing to watch.

The truth of the wild up close and personal.    Thanks again Nancy for your generosity.

With nothing left to see and no way to know what happened, we walk on down the road taking pictures, enjoying the surroundings.

I’m assuming we’re enjoying Mountain Flox and Yellow Ragwort

About this time I realize that in the excitement I’ve lost my sunglasses.  So as they head into the woods, I start a slow search going back with my head down scanning the ground.

My peripheral vision picks up this chipping sparrow just inside the fence.  He may be common but he sure is cute.

I do look up when I hear this group come thundering up the road.  High school cross country running up hill in July.  Ah to be young again!

I retrace our entire route on both sides of the road since we were going back and forth watching the drama.   When I get back to their truck and look inside through the windows to see if it is at all possible that I just left them in the truck, I find – Nope.

On the way back to join Nancy and Bill I do see these two handsome fellows.

I also find the answer to why the turkey crosses the road.

Becasue everybody else did.

 

Cades Cove is definitely a beautiful place where you really never know what you  might see.