This beautiful waterfall is the 1st attraction if you are heading to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail just outside of Gatlinburg. There are 2 traffic lights you can turn at in Gatlinburg, one is #8 and I believe that is Airport Rd. Not sure of the other traffic light number, but the sign points towards Cherokee Orchard Rd and the RFMNT. The parking lot is on the right and you can expect to have plenty of company during the summer months. The trail is 2.7 miles and is another beautiful walk (uphill) thru the forest. You'll find rocky and rooted areas along the trail, and I'd give it a medium in difficulty. We saw a family of a Mom, dog, 2 young girls walking and Dad carrying a younger girl on the trail bookin' right along, if that'll give you any indication.
The first thing you may notice on the left is these bizarrely shaped trees growing together. I must have been asleep, because I didn't notice them until I walked past them on the way down.
Wildflowers were plentiful on this trail also, as were moss covered trees, logs, and rocks. The trail basically follows Le Conte Creek, but crosses some smaller tributaries and wet areas. One particularly beautiful spot is close to Rainbow where a small waterfall spills about 10' over a ledge on the right hand side of the trail.
Just a little farther up the trail, we crossed another foot bridge. Looking to the right while crossing the bridge, we could barely see Rainbow Falls through the trees. The trail then switchbacks and crosses Le Conte Creek again at the viewing area for the falls. If you go, you have to climb the boulders and get up closer to the falls to appreciate it's true beauty. It's an 80' narrow spill over a 400' long colorful rock wall. A bright green algae lives in the splash area of the falls, and the rocks and wall are colored with greens, yellows, grays, and purplish browns. When we first got up on the boulders near the falls, we were greeted by a red squirrell scurrying about, I guess hoping we were going to feed it. We hung around up here for a good 1-1.5 hours and noticed that most of the people stayed down at the trail area. The trail continues up to Mt. Le Conte, which was the destination of some of the hikers. Here's another shot of the falls from another angle - on the next page are a few more shots from the trail.
