Surf & Turf

In the morning, we headed to Wildwater for our rafting trip. The tour guides went through some safety information and then we broke into groups with individual guides for our rafting. Our guide was Channing. After getting our equipment, we piled into the school bus with the rafts on the roof and headed just over the state line to put in our rafts near the power plant. We rafted down the Pigeon River back towards Hartford. Although much of the run was flat and calm, there were quite a few good rapids and we all got thoroughly wet. I was at the front of the raft on the right side and definitely took the majority of splashes. But approaching some of the rafts, we splashed each other and got thoroughly wet. Towards the end at a calm stretch of the river, we all jumped out of the raft and went for a quick swim in the river. Then we got back in the raft and finished up, arriving back at Wildwater. We had lunch and took showers at Wildwater before heading out for more turf.  From Wildwater, we headed towards Gatlinburg and into Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Turning left at stoplight #8, we followed Cherokee Orchard Road to the Rainbow Falls Trail parking area. Although less 2.5 miles in length, the trail has a steady uphill slope, starting from the beginning as it heads up Mount LeConte. For most of the way, the trail follows LeConte Creek, with the soothing sound of running water audible for nearly the entire trip.

It had rained in Gatlinburg as we started, but died down to a light drizzle or less once we hit the trails. The temperature and humidity made me take off my rain jacket quickly to stay as cool as possible. The last mile of the trail crosses LeConte Creek twice on footbridges with a few smaller waterfalls at the crossings. But there was no mistaking the real waterfall.

At 80 feet, it is the tallest single-drop waterfall in the park.

We spent a while here taking photos and enjoying the beautiful waterfall.

Near the base, there was a lot of mist and one could easily see the potential for rainbow on a sunnier day.

As we were getting to leave, a squirrel popped up. He wasn't afraid of humans at all. In fact, he let us pet him and ate peanuts out of our hand. We named him Barry.

After saying bye to Barry, we headed back down the way we came; the trail continues to Mount LeConte, but it was getting late and we were getting hungry.

We returned to the parking lot and drove into Gatlinburg to have Mexican at No Way Jose's then back to camp. We were very tired, but somehow managed to find the energy to play Bejeweled on an iPod as a group - easier to get the matches with four sets of eyes on the screen.