Look at the Wild Elk!

I hope you enjoyed the guided tour yesterday driving through the twists and turns on the Blue Ridge Parkway to see the beautiful leaves. You’ve have time to rest so now on to a guided tour of more excitement! Hope you don’t mind getting up early, we have to be to the fields by 7AM. What fields you ask, we are going to visit wild Elk coming down for breakfast in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s quite cold and foggy at the beginning so you might need a jacket and gloves.

This area is well known for the Elk coming down to feed. It’s right next to the Oconaluftee Indian Village where you are transported to a small village dated back from the 1760’s. The Elk are grazing and while it’s a bit hard to see in the fog, they are so majestic.

Oh look over there, a baby Elk is having breakfast while mama is patiently waiting for her to finish.

This fine lady was slowly walking out of the bushes and she then froze. Slowly she turned her head as if to say, “You can take my picture!”

The fog was still quite thick and after Ms. Elk let me take her picture I heard rustling in the bushes. I slowly got my camera ready thinking another Elk might wander out. Do you see what I see? At first I thought I was looking at tree branches than I realized it was a huge set of antlers!

Almost in slow motion this huge bull Elk came out of the bushes and started eating. He kept his back to me so I wasn’t able to get a good head shot but his 12 point antler rack was humongous! I can’t imagine how much that headset weighs and seems like they would be top heavy. Speaking of weight, did you know an Elk weighs between 700 – 1100 pounds??

The fog finally lifted and now the entire herd was up and moving around. There were a few more bull Elks but none with antlers like Mr. Macho Elk. We could stay here all morning and watch the Elk but we have a few more places to go.

It’s time to take another drive through the Nantahala Forest. But as we started to leave the Elk fields, this lady decided to walk across the road in front off us! Then driving through town, out of nowhere Mr. Tom Turkey flew right in front of our car! Neither pictures are clear since I only had a fraction of a second to snap a picture.

The Nantahala Gorge is a beautiful place to stop and watch the river flow and in warmer weather we see groups of kayaks paddling down stream.

With a trip this close to Murphy NC, a must stop is at Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River for a bite to eat. I love the tuna melts at Earl of Sandwich and the only place I know to get them is at the casino! Did you know that Earl of Sandwich was a real person back in the medieval days and he was also a gambler? This is a blog I wrote a few years ago about Earl of Sandwich, the person! The tuna melts are delicious! Okay it’s time to get back on the road and find some fresh mountain apples.

Driving through another quint town we pass by Darnell Farms for some delicious fresh picked mountain apples. They also have pumpkins, squash, home made jams and jellies. I got two bags of apples and when we got home I cut one of the Pink Lady apples in slices and drizzled caramel sauce over them since I didn’t have and caramel dip. They were delicious!

We’ve had another fun day just driving around and seeing the beautiful sites of the mountains. I hope you enjoyed the second day of our virtual tour of the Great Smoky and Nantahala National Forests.