Filmed from the front deck
Wildlife at Acorn Ridge
Black bears, mostly. One bobcat. All of it caught on the cabin's own camera, none of it staged, and all of it the reason the house rules about food are what they are.
Shagbark sits on a wooded ridge on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains, and the black bears that live in the park do not stop at the boundary. They walk the roads, they cross the driveways, and a few times a month one of them crosses ours. These clips are from the camera on our own front deck. Nothing is staged and nothing is fed — which is the point.
For most families a bear turns out to be the story they take home. It stays that kind of story as long as nobody leaves food out: no coolers on the decks, nothing edible in the cars, trash in the bear-proof bin with the latch closed. A bear that finds a meal at a cabin comes back, and one that comes back becomes a problem the whole community has to solve. The full list is short and it is on the house rules page.
A bear on the driveway, 9 September
On the front deck, 31 August
Midday crossing, 4 September
Early morning at the top of the drive, 28 August
A bobcat at dusk, 13 August
If you see one
Watch from the deck or a window, keep children with you, and give it room to leave. Do not approach it, do not follow it for a photograph, and never feed it — in Tennessee that is a criminal offense as of July 2026, and inside the national park it is a federal one. A bear that is left alone leaves. The ones in these clips all did.
Bears are not the only neighbors. Deer, wild turkeys, raccoons and the occasional bobcat use the same woods, and in the evening the valley below the back deck is loud with them.
See it from the deck yourself
Ten guests, five queen-or-larger beds, two levels of deck and a hot tub under cover. The bears are not included in the price, but they do turn up.