It is easy to see why the Laurel Falls Trail is a favorite among visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park: the 1.25-mile path has an elevation gain of merely 200 feet and the round trip generally takes about two hours, which makes for a very manageable hike. The trail, which leads to 80-foot Laurel Falls, is paved -- though not always smoothly -- and is an option if members of your party require strollers or wheelchairs. If you hike the trail in May, you will pass shrubs abloom with the mountain laurel that gives the cascade its name. There is parking at the start of the trail, which begins 3.5 miles from Sugarlands Visitors Center, but securing a spot can be a challenge. The Gatlinburg Convention and Visitors Bureau recommends visiting in early morning when it's less hectic.
On a warm day in Gatlinburg, do as the salamanders do and cool off in the refreshing, moist space behind and around the Grotto Falls. You can get to the 25-foot-tall cascade by following the Trillium Gap Trail, which swells with wildflowers in May. Accessible from stop No. 5 on the Roaring Fork Motor Trail, only the Trillium Gap Trail allows hikers to see a cataract in Great Smoky Mountains National Park from behind the crashing water. The 3-mile round trip takes two to three hours and is of moderate difficulty, according to the U.S. National Park Service.
Rainbow Falls Trail leads to its namesake waterfall, which gets its moniker from the colorful arc that enlivens it on bright afternoons. The Rainbow Falls, however, are also worth a trip in the winter, when, under frigid enough conditions, an impressive ice sculpture develops around the cascade. You will need between three and five hours to complete the 5.4-mile round trip to Rainbow Falls, according to the U.S. National Park Service, which describes the hike as "moderate to difficult."
At 100 feet high, Ramsey Cascades is the tallest of the waterfalls in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the effort required to see it is proportional to its height. The 8-mile round trip is considered strenuous -- you gain 2,000 feet in elevation over 4 miles -- and takes five to seven hours, says the U.S. National Park Service. The trail begins 4.7 miles from the park's Greenbrier entrance, 6 miles east of Gatlinburg proper. For most of the journey, you hike past rivers and streams; the final 2 miles wind through a hardwood forest.
You will tread past various types of forest and cross three log bridges on your hike to the Abrams Falls, a 20-foot-high cascade that bears the name of a Cherokee chief whose tribe once settled in the area. The trail, which has an elevation gain of 340 feet, begins shortly past stop No. 10 on the Cades Cove Loop Road, approximately 27 miles from Gatlinburg. The U.S. National Park Service considers the 5-mile round trip to be moderate in difficulty.
