More than two million people visit Cades Cove each year. Traveling the one-way, 11-mile loop road, those visitors easily access restored home sites and churches dating from the 1800s and early 1900s, as well as trailheads to popular destinations such as Abrams Falls. Driving the loop road at a leisurely pace allows one to go back in time to the high point in Cades Cove history when it was a thriving mountain farming community of around 130 families. Even after the Cove became part of the Park in 1934, a few residents remained. But by 1944, most had moved out and the last remaining school in the Cove was closed. Long before the area was settled by whites, Native Americans--principally Cherokee--hunted deer, bear, elk and bison in the Cove. Some Cherokee trails into and out of the area are still visible.

Elk and bison are long gone from Cades Cove, but plentiful whitetail deer and black bear remain. It is estimated that only about 30 deer remained in the area when the land was purchased for the national park, and those were in the mountains above the Cove. Under protection afforded by the Park, deer began to flourish. Soon, the herd grew to an unsustainable level; by the mid-1980s, it numbered over one thousand. But conditions changed. Predators returned. Coyotes have been present since the 1980s, and black bears-- never completely absent--grew in numbers. Bears and the occasional European wild boar kill fawns. Mostly because of this increased predation, the deer population dropped to a more sustainable level.

Wildlife in the Cove, including whitetails, are well-habituated to humans, especially those cruising by in vehicles. If their personal space is respected, most are also reasonably tolerant of humans on foot. This healthy fellow was feeding nonchalantly near the loop road; his presence caused quite a traffic jam as many motorists tried to find parking space or just stopped in the middle of the road. The deer was in no rush, and many photographers--employing a wide range of equipment--took advantage of the opportunity. I saw some getting as close as 15 or 20 feet, drawing no more interest from the deer than an occasional glance. Using a 500 mm lens, my primary photographic problem was not being in close proximity to the deer, but rather in finding a shooting angle to capture the deer while simultaneously excluding all the humans.