Rainbow Falls (Great Smoky Mountains National Park)

Rainbow Falls is a 75 foot tall waterfall you can see if you’re willing to take a hike of just over 5.5 miles round trip, and if you’re willing to get stuck patiently on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail starting near Gatlinburg, TN.  This takes you into a section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that also features some historic sites, Grotto Falls, and the Place of a Thousand Drips.

You’ll get there by departing Gatlinburg, TN and heading onto the one way loop known as the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail.  This is a lot like another area within the park in the Cades Cove section where you also get stuck on a loop trying to find Abrams Falls.  While you can just easily search for the trailhead in Google Maps, and there’s plenty of material to be picked up at the park and maps online, what you really need to keep in mind, since you’re stuck on a one way road, is that parking at the trail head is limited.  This is a popular hike, and even though there’s a decent amount of parking on site, it didn’t quite do it when I got there.  Luckily just past the official trailhead and parking area are several smaller pullout areas.  I added about an 1/8th of a mile to my hike by having to use one of these.  Anyway, get there, and start the trail!

You’re looking at a little over two and half miles of hiking to get to the falls.  I did not understand when I started this that the entire 2.6 miles ahead of me to get to the top was going to be 100% uphill hiking!  While you’re going through some really scenic forest, which then converts into some more exposed areas, and back again to forest, you’ll encounter nature steps, little bridges, and a lot of hard packed dirt.  This felt brutal and went on seemingly forever.  I tend to over pack my hiking bag, and I wish I could have eliminated a lot of stuff.  Most of the emergency supplies in fact, because you’re not going to get lost out here, there are plenty of other people.  It comes down to needing water, snacks and a few basics.  There is a 1600 foot elevation gain!  Keep that in mind.

One of my favorite moments on the trail was encountering a group of ladies just starting up as I was coming back down.  They had no gear.  Nothing.  Probably hadn’t researched this hike.  One of them said to another, “If I had known this was going to be like, a ‘Hike’ hike, I’d have brought a water.”  That’s not what you want to hear from people starting a hike that takes hours and is kind of rough.  I figured they’d either give up later that day or come out severely dehydrated.  As for me, I had the (weight of) benefit of two 32oz Nalgene bottles and a Lifestraw.

The Rainbow Falls Trail itself was pleasure, with the snake I saw pictured above and several little water features along the way.  Rainbow Falls when you arrive is a treat, being a large and wide fall.  I probably didn’t get the best day for it flow wise, but it was well worth it.  Clearly there are times of higher flow of when I was there (Fall 2022).  I see for example in someone’s post you can read here where they visited in Spring instead and there’s more water running.  This may just vary based on the different years as well.