The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is a one way paved roadway accessible only via Cherokee Orchard Road just out of the small resort city of Gatlinburg. The area’s proximity to Gatlinburg lends it to a relatively high number of visitors during mid-day in the peak tourist seasons and on weekends, though dayhikers usually concentrate at Grotto and Rainbow Falls.
Three of the trails in this region lead to the summit of Mount Le Conte, one of the most popular destinations for hikers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Here, the LeConte Lodge provides the only commercial lodging within the national park and annually sells out all of its rooms, which contain no electricity or running water, months in advance. The mountain is also popular for its vistas at Myrtle Point and the Cliff Tops.
- Bullhead Trail: Of the five trails that lead to the summit of Mount Le Conte, the 6.9 mile (11.1 kilometer) Bullhead Trail is the least popular. There are two reasons for this designation: its isolation and its lack of side attractions. Besides that accessing the trail requires at least a 0.4 mile walk to the trailhead along the Old Sugarlands Trail, all of the other trails en route to the LeConte Lodge at Mount Le Conte pass by other significant landmarks, such as waterfalls or unique rock formations, but the Bullhead Trail simply ascends Le Conte. Of course, though, for some hikers, this loneliness is a good thing.
- Baskins Creek Trail: Baskins Creek Falls is by far the least known waterfall in this area. The others, Rainbow and Grotto Falls, both get so many sightseers that their auxiliary parking lots are routinely overflown with vehicles. The 3.3 mile round trip (5.3 kilometer) Baskins Creek Trail passes by an old cemetery just a few yards into its length where many residents of the area were buried before it became a national park.
- Rainbow Falls Trail: One of the five trails that leads up Mount Le Conte, the Rainbow Falls Trail follows a route similar to that taken by a group of politicians before the creation of the national park to see just what the area had to offer. The trail’s namesake, Rainbow Falls, which at eighty feet contains the highest single-drop of water in the national park, is located miles into the 6.6 mile (10.6 kilometer) footpath to the summit of Mount Le Conte. While the trek to the waterfall will be bustling with hikers, once beyond Rainbow Falls the trail thins out considerably.
- Trillium Gap Trail: Another of the five trails that ascends Mount Le Conte, the Trillium Gap Trail first passes behind Grotto Falls at 1.3 miles (2.1 kilometers), the only waterfall in the park where this is possible. Just like at the Rainbow Falls Trail, the hike to the waterfall will be quite busy under normal circumstances, but, from points onward of the falls, will be much less populated. Trillium Gap lies 2.9 miles (4.7 kilometers) along the trail at a junction with the Brushy Mountain Trail, where hikers can choose to pay a visit to Brushy Mountain or continue on 3.6 miles (5.8 kilometers) to the summit of Mount Le Conte.
Other trails in the area
- Grapeyard Ridge Trail
- Old Sugarlands Trail
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