Rainbow Falls

See the Gatlinburg Region web page for an interactive location map.

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Length: 5.2 miles round trip to waterfall, 6.7 miles to the top of Mount LeConte (one way)
Time: 3.5 hours to the waterfall and back, 5.5 hours to the top of Mount LeConte (one way)
Difficulty: Moderate to waterfall, strenuous to the top due to rocky terrain

Nearly everyone hiking the Rainbow Falls Trail is heading to the waterfall 2.6 miles away, but the trail actually continues another 4.1 miles to the top of Mount LeConte, the third highest peak in Great Smoky Mountains National Park at 6,600 feet in elevation. Those heading to the top are most likely on their way to the LeConte Lodge, either because they are staying there or they just want to see it. There are also some nice views at the Cliff Top and Myrtle Point overlooks.

The trailhead for the Rainbow Falls Trail is located on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, a loop road near Gatlinburg, Tennessee. In fact, the road you must take to get there, Cherokee Orchard Road, actually begins in Gatlinburg, so you may have to travel through the downtown area to reach it, and that alone can be a traffic nightmare. The actual parking lot is the same one used for the Bull Head Trail, and during the tourist season you won’t get near it if you arrive much after sunrise. Of course, if you are hiking round trip to the top of Mount LeConte, you’ll need to start first thing in the morning. I got there around 8 AM and still had to park pretty far down the road. There is a second parking lot just past the first one, and this is also the location of a second trailhead that cuts over to the main trail at an angle. So even if you can’t find a parking spot there, at least you don’t have to walk all the way back to the first parking lot to begin the hike.

Parking situation along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail near the popular trailheads

There is a sign at the start of the Rainbow Falls Trail that warns that it might be impassible due to high water flow on LeConte Creek, and if so, use the Bull Head Trail. This pertains only to those hiking beyond the waterfall. But if the summit of Mount LeConte is your destination, you certainly don’t want to hike all the way to the waterfall just to find out that you can’t go farther. During the fall and winter seasons when the days are shorter, if you must turn around and then start up the mountain on the Bull Head Trail, you’d never make it back in time before dark. Unfortunately, it is doubtful anyone would know if the trail is passible first thing in the morning because nobody would have done the hike. Therefore, I suggest hiking up the mountain on the Bull Head Trail, one of the most beautiful in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. At the top, just ask around if the Rainbow Falls Trail is passible. By this time there will be plenty of other hikers near the LeConte Lodge, and if it is passible, they’ll tell you about it. If so, return on the Rainbow Falls Trail to complete the loop hike.

Start of the Rainbow Falls Trail

The Rainbow Falls Trail follows LeConte Creek and is uphill the entire way to the LeConte Lodge with only a few minor stretches of flat terrain, though the incline is never strenuous. At times the trail resorts to switchbacks instead of taking the much steeper “straight up the mountain” approach. This makes climbing a steep mountain much easier. In all, the 6.7-mile hike to the top is just a continuous slog along a moderate hill. The average grade of the trail is only 12%, and most people agree that 15% is where strenuous hiking begins.  (The grade is not the angle of the slope, but the calculation of rise (climb in elevation) divided by run (length of horizontal progress) expressed as a percentage ((rise/run) x 100). For example, using feet as the unit of measurement, a 10% grade means that a trail climbs 10 feet for every 100 feet in length.)

In 2017 the National Park Service began a renovation project on the section of the Rainbow Falls Trail from the parking lot to the waterfall, turning the once very rocky trail into something more hiker friendly. That’s not to say that there are no rocky stretches, but it’s nothing like it was when I first hiked the trail in 2015. However, no work was done beyond the falls, and the rocks on the trail remain extreme on the upper section. Rarely will you be able to hike at your normal pace because you must watch every step so you don’t twist an ankle (except for the young guy I saw who was actually jogging up the trail).

Typical terrain of the Rainbow Falls Trail above the waterfall

Other than the fact that you have a continuous uphill climb, most anyone who can walk five miles can get to the waterfall. I saw people at the start of the trail who were so heavy and out-of-shape that I would have put money on them having a heart attack on the way up, and even they made it. Some people defy the laws of anatomy. As they say, “If there’s a will, there’s a way.”

On the way up you will pass a number of cascades, including a small waterfall.

Water cascades through the rocks of Le Conte Creek

Small waterfall along the Rainbow Falls Trail

At the 1.75-mile point on the hike you get to cross LeConte Creek on what I call an “Indiana Jones” bridge. These are single logs with a railing attached to them. In the movies, if you were trying to escape across a chasm, the bad guys would be at one end rocking the bridge back and forth so you would fall to your death.

Crossing Le Conte Creek on an Indiana Jones bridge

View of Le Conte Creek from the bridge

I’ve seen Rainbow Falls twice in the fall and was not impressed either time, especially considering the effort it took to reach it. Both visits came after multiple days of heavy rain, and there still wasn’t much water flowing. I searched the Internet for a better photo that I might use, but even the best of them wasn’t that impressive. The cascades you pass on the way up are just as good as Rainbow Falls. If you want to see a better waterfall in the same general area, hike the Trillium Gap Trail to Grotto Falls. The parking lot is also on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail.

Rainbow Falls

As mentioned, the terrain beyond the falls is much more difficult due to rocks and roots, but cardiovascular-wise, it’s much of the same. The climb to the top of Mount LeConte is about as steady an ascent as you’ll find on any trail, so just imagine what you just experienced on the way to the waterfall for another 4.1 miles. However, the rocky terrain becomes extreme. Stepping up on rocks. Stepping down from rocks. Stepping up and over rocks. There are so many large rocks on the trail that the National Park Service was able to build staircases out of them. By the time I got to the top of Mount LeConte I had fallen once, rolled my ankles three times, and almost rolled my ankles another dozen times…and that’s with hiking poles. If you have bad ankles, you might think twice about hiking the Rainbow Falls Trail to the end. In fact, that advice can apply to most of the trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Typical terrain on the Rainbow Falls Trail above the waterfall

Staircase of rocks on the Rainbow Falls Trail

The Rainbow Falls Trail crosses LeConte Creek three times above the falls, and there are a few picturesque cascades along the way.

Cascade on LeConte Creek above Rainbow Falls

The hike to the waterfall and beyond is largely through the forest, but about 1.1 miles above the falls is a section that breaks out into the open and follows a ridge across one of the few level stretches of trail. The area was fogged-in during my hike, but I know there are excellent views of the surrounding mountains (another hiker told me so). Notice that many of the trees along the trail are dead. This is the result of the Gatlinburg Wildfire, a November 2016 fire that burned 18,000 acres. If there is a positive side to a fire that may have been started by two kids and that killed 14 people, it’s that the nice views you get are due to the lack of trees in the way. If you hike the Bull Head Trail, you’ll have a lot more such open areas. This is the only one on the Rainbow Falls Trail. It lasts only for a minute, and then it’s back into the forest for the remainder of the hike.

Open area of the Rainbow Falls Trail

Dead trees from the 2016 Gatlinburg Wildfire

At 2.8 miles above the falls is a detour to an overlook of Rocky Spur. Since I had to get to the top of Mount LeConte and back down before dark, and because I had no idea how long the side trail to Rocky Spur was, I skipped past this and continued up the mountain. There is second trail to Rocky Spur just up ahead, so I am guessing that the path is U-shaped, exiting the Rainbow Falls Trail at one point and merging back onto it a little farther down.

Just past the Rocky Spur detour, the large rocks begin to disappear, but they are replaced by smaller rocks the size of an adult hand. These are still tricky because many of them are loose, so stepping on them is like stepping on marbles. Of the many times I twisted or almost twisted my ankles, most of these incidents occurred on the small rocks.

Typical terrain on the upper portion of the Rainbow Falls Trail

The Rainbow Falls Trail intersects with the Bull Head Trail 3.4 miles above the falls. Take a left to continue on the Rainbow Falls Trail to the LeConte Lodge and the summit of Mount LeConte (.7 mile ahead). The Bull Head Trail officially ends at the intersection.

View of the Rainbow Falls Trail from the Bull Head Trail intersection

This may well be the longest .7 mile you’ll ever hike. The trail begins once again up a steep hill. On the way is the intersection with the Alum Cave Trail, a popular trail that most people hike partway to Alum Cave. It is another tenth of a mile to the lodge. The Rainbow Falls Trail officially ends at the intersection with the Trillium Gap and Boulevard trails, which is just a little ways past the lodge.

Final stretch of trail before reaching LeConte Lodge

I actually hiked to the top of Mount LeConte on the Bull Head Trail and came down on the Rainbow Falls Trail. I had previously hiked to the waterfall and written about it back in 2015 (first part of this trail review), so I added the section about the hike beyond the waterfall by reverse-engineering my hike down the Rainbow Falls Trail. As I suggested, since there is no way to know if the Rainbow Falls Trail is passable early in the morning, hike to the top of Mount LeConte on the Bullhead Trail. For one, it’s a nicer trail, and two, you can make a loop out of the hike by coming down on the Rainbow Falls Trail, thus avoiding seeing the same things twice. See the Bull Head Trail report here on National Park Planner for complete details on the hike up.

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