By Madison Fessler / The Jambar
Two weeks ago, I went on vacation with my family to the Great Smoky Mountains, an area famous for having nearly 1,900 bears within 526 square miles. That’s two bears per square mile, which is great odds for seeing one.
However, I was wrong. I never saw one. This isn’t even my first Dolly Parton’s Stampede, I’ve been to the Smokies four times now and felt offended that I haven’t seen a singular black bear roaming around. I’ve stayed in cabins high up in the mountains and in hotels closer to civilization so I don’t think it’s user error.
In fact, black bears have a personal vendetta against me. They’ve had a little bear council meeting and decided the Fessler family is never allowed near them. They know how much my mom and I love them and they want to see us suffer.
After the constant failures of previous trips, my family was determined that this one would be different. We researched the best area to go to see black bears — Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park — the best time to go is early morning or dusk.
We drove 45 minutes to Cades Cove and drove the 11-mile loop on Friday, Sept. 13. We saw some of the usual suspects, squirrels and turkeys, but the best scene was a herd of deer. We only saw deer, animals I could go into my backyard and see. Safe to say we wasted our time.
Though we didn’t achieve our goal of seeing black bears, the trip wasn’t a complete waste. It was nice to get out of Ohio and into other scenery for a few days. The mountains have always helped me clear my head.
We visited some fascinating places along the road, like the Tamarack in Beckley, West Virginia. It’s a marketplace that features vendors from around the state, their artisan crafts and an art gallery.
Obviously if you’re going to the Great Smoky Mountains, you have to go to Dollywood, and go to Dollywood I did. Wild Eagle has to be my number one ride, think GateKeeper and Rougarou at Cedar Point combined.
I have to say, I highly recommend going in the fall. I got on three rides within 10 minutes, which wasn’t good for my stomach, but it was great for my serotonin production.
The food in Tennessee will always be better, there I said it. We went to a couple of new places and a few we frequent in that area.
I found Mel’s Diner back in 2015, a little 50s-style diner that specializes in American comfort food. I highly recommend Alissa’s Philly Chicken Cheese. It might be time to get a shirt from there seeing I have a favorite dish.
A new place we visited was the Sunliner Diner, again another 50s style diner but this one takes the cake for immersive experience. The menus imitate newspapers from the decade, some of the seats are classic cars and the servers are in full 50s garb.
If I had to rank this visit against the other visits to the Smokies, I’d place it second. Nothing rivals the magic of seeing the Great Smoky Mountains for the first time.