The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is my favorite place on earth. There is something magical about that place. I found out a while back that some of my ancestors moved to Missouri from this area. Maybe that's why when I am traveling there it seems a little bit like going home. I have always been fascinated by nature and I can spend hours with a camera walking through these gold and green dappled woods and be the happiest person on earth.br/ br/Once in a while, I get to meet another of God's creatures and this time it was a black bear cub probably about eight months old. We spotted this rambunctious little guy just outside of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. He and his sibling were climbing up and down this tree just off the road playing with each other and eating wild grapes. Black bears are extremely good climbers and love grapes and acorns which can be found high in the trees. With winter just around the corner, they will spend up to twenty hours a day feeding to prepare for it. It is not unusual for a bear to fall asleep high up in a tree with a half eaten bunch of grapes hanging out of one side of its mouth. Mama was obviously down below them because they kept looking down at somebody they knew, but the tree was tall and on a sloping hill so we did not actually see her. That was a good thing since mama bears tend to be a bit protective of their youngsters. That same slope, however, provided us with a straight on view of these two cubs thirty feet up a tree. This is one of my favorite shots of him hanging around. Hope you enjoy it!