Other pull-offs provide areas to access the river or to explore hiking trails. The trail has two pull offs that show off views of the Smoky Mountains. Along the TrailĪfter turning on to the Roaring Fork Trail you will have opportunities to explore. The waterfall is 80 foot tall and when sunlight hits the water just right you can see the misty rainbow that bounces of the cascading water. The hike to the waterfall is 5.4 miles round trip. Beyond the cabin and up the road you will pass by the trailhead for Rainbow Falls. You will find Bud Ogle’s cabin, a tubmill, and a handcrafted wooden flume plumbing system. A self-guiding nature trail here takes visitors on a walking tour of the old homestead. Before the Trail Startsīefore the official motor nature trail starts you will pass by Noah “Bud” Ogle’s cabin. After a hard rain, if you visit the area, you will quickly see how the Roaring Fork got its name. This is one of the largest and fastest rivers in the park. The motor nature trail got its name from the river it follows. From there the trail is 5.5 miles long one-way.
Just beyond the Rainbow Falls trailhead you will follow the one-way sign for Roaring Fork. Follow Historic Nature Trail Road to the Cherokee Orchard entrance to the national park. If you reach the Place of a Thousand Drips, you’ve passed it, and you have to circle around again if you want to see it.To reach Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, turn off the main parkway in Gatlinburg at traffic light #8. The road turns into the Motor Trail inside of the park.
Luckily, the road wasn’t busy at that time (in late April), and I had the chance to stop and photograph the falls. Before I got to my planned destination, I noticed this other waterfall to my left. You can only go one way on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, and I was paying attention for the Place of a Thousand Drips. So let’s just say I stuck to the main road. There was also some thunder around, and my brain does not particularly like thunder. I then stopped went into Gaitlinburg and ended up taking way more time than planned to find dinner! So once I got to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, I didn’t have a huge amount of time left to hike to some of the falls, which clock in at 5+ miles round trip. The hike to Mingo Falls was shorter, Laurel Falls somewhat longer. On the day I visited, I had stopped to see Mingo Falls and Laurel Falls. (It gives me a good reason to go back!) If you take the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, which is very close to Gaitlinburg (a surprisingly commercialized town), you will have the chance to visit a number of waterfalls such as Grotto and Rainbow Falls. Great Smoky Mountain National Park is a great place to find waterfalls, and in the short time I visited, I wasn’t able to see very many of them. A waterfall along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail (April 2013)