Unwilling Celebrity

On our last day in the Smoky Mountains, the air was thick with smoke and drifting ash from the wildfires. Landscape photography was all but out of the question...
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On our last day in the Smoky Mountains, the air was thick with smoke and drifting ash from the wildfires. Landscape photography was all but out of the question, most of the animals were spooked and behaving erratically, and only a handful of people were out and about. We decided to spend our last day relaxing a bit with some easy activities but still enjoying the outdoors as best we could. By early afternoon, we found ourselves walking a nature trail along the Oconaluftee River between Great Smoky Mountain National Park and the Cherokee Nation. After spotting some elk cows and a young bull on the far side of the river, we crossed over and started looking for a mature bull. Walking along a street parallel to the river on the Cherokee side, several people slowed down to warn us that the bulls in this herd were particularly aggressive. We thanked them for the advice, and when we found a younger mature bull, we made sure to keep our distance. We initially found him in a thick wooded area where he was rubbing and marking a tree. After watching for a few minutes, and unsuccessfully snapping a few attempted shots, we decided to give it up. No sooner than we turned around, and we heard a loose dog accost the bull elk. After a quick confrontation resulting in the dog running away, we decided the elk was too aggravated to continue pursuing and that leaving was our best course of action. As we walked back to the bridge where the Blue Ridge Parkway crosses the Oconaluftee River, we noticed that the bull was following parallel to us. We also saw that a decent crowd had gathered on the bridge due to many of the herd's cows crossing the river below it. When we got to the top of the parkway bridge, this fellow stepped out of the woods where he was met with an excited reaction from the watching crowd. He quickly crossed the road and tucked into the woods on the opposite side, but not without the occasional turn to look at the crowd that was watching him.
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