Rainbow Falls

Today we got a rather late start after running the generator and filling up water containers to pour into our fresh water tank. Our first stop was Sugarlands Visitor Center. We hadn’t yet seen the orientation video for the park or checked out the nature museum. Both were definitely worthwhile. The video managed a nice balance between education and inspiration.

The nature museum had lots of displays of the wildlife in the park, from the beetles to the birds to the bears.

Next we drove to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail and stopped first at the Bud Ogle Place briefly before continuing to the trailhead for Rainbow Falls. It’s 2.7 miles each way out and back. On the way out it’s a series of switchbacks, gaining over 1,000 feet of elevation. The trail is boulder strewn and requires attention to where to put your feet.

Part way up we encountered a couple who were pointing off the edge of the trail ahead, where a very angry rattlesnake was making its presence heard, quite loudly and menacingly. We watched it for a while and then decided to go back down the trail a bit and have lunch while waiting to see what developed.

As we ate, a whole hiking club came down the trail. They said that as long as you stayed on the trail and didn’t make too much noise, the snake wouldn’t be a problem. A few other people came by too. When we were done eating, we decided to try our luck, but just as we approached the area where the snake had been, a young couple came down the trail.

He was holding the rattler, one hand just behind its head and the other near its tail. He said he was taking it to put it someplace away from the trail. He had done the same earlier, but the snake had come right back up to the trail and he was afraid that someone would be bitten. Seeing our look of surprise, he said he’d been catching rattlers since he was a kid. The girl said, “And scaring his momma!” I wish I’d had my camera out.

We walked on up the trail and came finally to a small and disappointing waterfall.

We were just getting discouraged and ready to start back when two young women bounced up the trail and started talking with us. They said that someone had told them that there was a sign at Rainbow Falls. We fell in together talking and climbing and finally came to the falls, which at 80 feet high are the highest single-drop falls in the Smokies.

The return trip was all downhill and somewhat easier, despite the boulders and roots, but we were tired by the time we reached the truck and it was getting late, so we decided to skip the hike to Grotto Falls which also starts from the Motor Nature Trail.

We continued on the Motor Nature Trail, but didn’t stop at most of the pull-offs. We did enjoy the Ephraim Bales Place, which faces the Roaring Fork. The house was built towards the end of the nineteen century and lived in until 1930. The barn and the corn crib and the hog pen are original too. It’s a beautiful setting.

The one-way Motor Nature Trail takes you back in to Gatlinburg, where we decided to stop at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. I ended up buying only an S-biner to attach my water bottle to my backpack. By then it was getting late and we decided to have dinner at Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Restaurant. That was a mistake. First we had to find a parking lot that would fit our big dually truck (and pay $5 to park).

We had the she crab bisque, which was okay but nothing like as good as what we had in Virginia Beach. The grilled mahi-mahi was dry and not very flavorful. The rather breezy waiter kept up what he obviously thought was an entertaining patter with us and the booth behind us about the Forrest Gump movie. He did an imitation of Forrest’s manner of talking. We prefer a bit less attention of that sort from the wait staff. We can’t imagine what the Yelp reviewers who gave it four stars were thinking.


When we finally headed home we were tired and ready to turn in soon. Ken looked at our photos, but we didn’t do anything with them.