Each year, Jennifer King Photography Workshops takes a group of photographers to Great Smoky Mountains National Park to experience the spring season there. This year the group was treated to a lot of black bear activity as they start to fatten up on the new plant growth in the park after the winter season. In one day, the group saw seven black bears.

Bears were not the only wildlife spotted. There were deer, turkey, coyote, snakes, salamanders, millepedes, and this rather large skink that attached itself to the side of one of the old cabins in the Cades Cove area of the park.

The spring season brings full streams in the park and the early green leaves on the trees, which transforms the park into such a different landscape from the rest of the year. The image below comes from the Tremont area of the park.

Of course, the park wouldn’t be called the Smokies without the “smoke” and we had plenty of it on the final day of our workshop. Spring in the Smokies; great friends, great scenes, great wildlife. Couldn’t ask for more!