The wife and I have many trails in the Smokies. The tourists you see some times are the most stupid people alive. I seen a group of people heading downhill off the trail after a mother bear and two cubs. the mother bear sent the cubs up a tree and charged up the hill. The wife and I got the hell out of Dodge.
I did research on the wildlife in the Smokies from 1977-1980 studying the bears and deer on a UT Wildlife project. I saw stupid things people do around bears almost on a daily basis. Just because the bears are in the woods and don’t run when people are present does not mean they aren’t wild.