One Last Shot
When driving through the Great Smoky Mountains, you will sometimes see a group of cars stopped on the side of the road. If you ever happen to see that, I’d recommend stopping with them. This time was no different, and the timing could not have been better.
On the last day of my Girlfriend and I’s trip to the Smokies, we went on a hike up to Peregrine Peak. In complete honesty, one of my favorite hikes to date. We hiked the 2.3 miles up to the top in awe the entire time. The trail runs by a creek for most of the hike, then goes through a small cave, comes out to a forested uphill section, and the ridgeline overlooked the trees that began to come into some beautiful fall colors. If you haven’t hiked that part of the Smokies yet, I would highly recommend it the next time you go.
After hiking back down we were tired and had to pack and clean our cabin since we were leaving the next day, so we decided to leave the park a little early. I had wanted to see some wildlife but so far, aside from birds and a few stray ground squirrels, no wildlife has been seen. As we were winding through the fall foliage filled mountain road, we noticed a big group of cars stopped not too far ahead. We pulled off to see what everyone was looking at and, lo and behold, Bernard here was right on the other side of the riverbank.
I was so excited to see a bear, I couldn’t wait to get a photo. I parked my truck and practically sprinted to the side of the road. I was using my Canon 90d with a 55-250mm F/5.6 to take the shot. Even with the 250mm lens, I wasn’t getting far enough in. Bernard was moving along the river looking for food and I had to make my movements along with him. I made the decision to climb down a hill to get even closer. He stopped when I did, and looked in my direction. As he was turning over more rocks, I was snapping as many photos as I could. I took a look at some of the photos that night, and I could not have been more excited to see this one. To make sure it was right I spent at least 2 hours editing, and every moment was worth it.
