Tennessee · Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Rainbow Falls
33 mi from Knoxville · ~55 min drive
No height recorded
Rainbow Falls is a named waterfall in Tennessee — about 33 miles from Knoxville, TN. Full visit details below.
- State
- Tennessee
- Nearest city
- Knoxville, TN · 33 mi · ~55 min drive
- Coordinates
- 35.6623°, -83.4634°
- Park
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park (NP)
From Wikipedia: The Rainbow Falls Trail is an American hiking trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in Sevier County, Tennessee. The trail ascends Mount Le Conte, the third tallest in the park mountain east of the Mississippi River, and passes Rainbow Falls before absorbing the Alum Cave Trail and terminating near the LeConte Lodge. Excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Rainbow Falls Trail, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
About Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Rainbow Falls is inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a U.S. National Park managed by the National Park Service. Conditions, road status, trail closures, and reservation requirements are published directly on the park's NPS page — check it before driving in, especially in winter or during major weather events.
Entrance fee: Free. No entrance fee. Parking tags ($5/day, $15/week, $40/year) required for vehicles parked over 15 minutes.
Park homepage: https://www.nps.gov/grsm/
Visiting Rainbow Falls
The exact location is at 35.6623°, -83.4634° — open in Google Maps for driving directions from your location.
Before you go: check current conditions with the appropriate land manager — state parks department, U.S. Forest Service ranger district, or National Park Service unit. Trail access, parking, water levels, and seasonal closures all vary. Several waterfalls in our database are seasonal and may run dry between mid-summer and the next rainy season.
If you've visited Rainbow Falls and have current notes (parking situation, dog policy, seasonality, kid-friendliness), tell us at /contact — we update pages as we learn more.
Stay nearby
Driving in? The nearest documented metro is Knoxville, TN — 33 miles away (~55 min drive).
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Other waterfalls within 30 miles
Sources
Location and tag data for Rainbow Falls comes from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL license) ; the Wikipedia article linked above provides additional history. We do not modify the underlying data — this page presents what's already publicly recorded. To suggest corrections, see our methodology page or contact us.