Blazing sunshine has pushed temps to near 80, a welcome respite from what has been an unusually cold winter here the Great Smoky Mountains. Energized, my permanent senior sidekick and I decided the day was custom made for a leisurely road trip.
It quickly became obvious there were a million+ other individuals who had the same ‘unique’ idea . . . the mid-week traffic and crowds in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg had me wondering if a National Nice Day Holiday had suddenly been declared, or everyone had decided to ditch their jobs and call in sick for the day 😊
We headed up over the mountain to Cherokee, NC hoping to locate some of the Cervus canadensis roaming the forests there. In 2001 the National Park Service reintroduced 52 elk into Great Smoky Mountains surrounding Cherokee, and they are thriving. The herd now numbers over 200 . . . Mother Nature smiled on us and we found a few of them.
Unlike their human counterparts enjoying soaking up the rays donned in shorts and flimsy tank tops, the local wapiti didn’t appear to be relishing the unexpected warmth nearly as much. Having yet to shed their thick winter coats, and the females being pregnant, it was not an ideal ‘elk-weather’ day. However, they had found ways to handle the unexpected ‘heat wave’.
We first located 7 of them . . . not sun-bathing, but shade-bathing . . . refreshing in the shadow of a vacant National Park Service employee home posing as ‘yard art’ 😊
A wander along the pristine Oconaluftee River a bit later discovered a group of a dozen elk, with 3 cows heavy with calf wading in the cool stream to mitigate the heat . . . sure glad I’m a bull 😊
The innate survival instincts Mother Nature bestows upon her creatures to adapt to their world never ceases to fascinate me . . . totally effective, green, and energy independent 😊 . . . isn’t evolution incredible? . . . NOT!
If you’re up for a little brain stimulation, enlarge to following photo and see if you can find all 12 elk grazing in the forest and wading in the river.
Observing these beautiful creatures peacefully sharing their environment together, a reassuring Scripture came to mind of my Creator’s continual watch care over me . . .
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid, you are of more value than many sparrows.” Matthew 10:29-30
Enumerating the hairs gracing this folliclely deprived ole sparrow’s noggin’ is not a monumental mathematical task 😊, but I’m ever gratefully aware of just how undeservedly blessed I am . . . May you be as well!
Keep Looking Up ^ . . . His Best is Yet to Come!
Abba's Art 
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