Grizzly, Russian, Black, Asian, Cinnamon

When in a tourist town, do as the tourists do. As I mentioned, Cherokee, NC, was our tourist town of choice on this particular trip, and besides eating at the Little Princess Restaurant ("Indian Owned, Indian Operated" a sign said, and the place served pretty good fried chicken), we wandered around one of the tourist nodes along the Oconaluftee River until we saw this: a bear pit.

Supposedly, there's a bear pit in Pigeon Forge, too. Talk about rare tourist attractions, unless you consider it a minor species of zoo, and even then, how many zoos specialize in bears? PETA would not approve; all the more reason to visit. I asked about the price: $4. Even rarer -- a tourist attraction that hasn't participated much in the entertainment-price inflation of recent years.

You go upstairs to a second-floor complex, and look down on the bears, who are in concrete enclosures on the first floor:

Feeding the bears is encouraged, as the sign says. But only food bought at the bear pit. Lilly and Ann pestered me until I bought a small plate for $1, including apple slices and bread. The bears knew all about the supply of food from above, of course:

Clearly, in the past visitors have had the urge to have the bears wash down their food with handy carbonated beverages. Chief Saunooke says don't do it:

If you held bread or apples in your hand, and moved it with circular motion, this bear would wheel around a time or two as well, expecting a reward for his effort:

I'll give the place credit for pretending it was more than entertainment. It was educational, too! At various places were signs offering a lot of detailed information about bears. No one was reading these, naturally, and even I didn't have much patience for them.

After about 30 minutes, having seen all the bears on exhibit (about a dozen), and not willing to pay another $2 to see cubs in a special room, we headed for the door.

The exit led directly into Chief Saunooke's large souvenir shop. The funny thing was the sign on the other side of the exit, the one that souvenir shoppers might see. It said: DANGER. DO NOT ENTER. That was a complete lie, obviously intended to prevent people from accidentally entering the bear pit observation area without paying.