Rainbow Falls

Wednesday was Harper's first birthday.  We had breakfast again at Everett Street diner and we let our server know it was her birthday.  When we finished breakfast, the owner stopped and had the entire restaurant sing Happy Birthday to her.  She was very excited.  Afterwards, we headed back to Gatlinburg.  On Monday, Harper had dropped Emmy, her favorite toy at the aquarium.  Luckily, she was found and they held on to her, so headed back that way.  Upon entering Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we saw a bunch of turkeys in a field near Smokemont.

Continuing to Gatlinburg, we stopped at the aquarium to retrieve Emmy.  Since we were here, we headed into park along Cherokee Orchard Road.  The Rainbow Falls Trailhead was completely full, even on a Wednesday, but there was space at the overflow lot.  It was a steep climb up with a baby in the backpack, but not too bad with plenty of switchbacks.  We saw some deer on the way up.

After a couple miles, we crossed LeConte Creek on a footbridge.

In over 2 miles, we crossed a small tributary of LeConte Creek with a little waterfall.

We took a short break here and talked to a guy heading up to Mount LeConte.

Right before the waterfall, we crossed the creek again on a stone bridge.

Right after this, we came to Rainbow Falls.

It was kind of foggy and made the waterfall look cool.

I climbed up the side for a view but the rocks were wet so I didn't scramble out too far.

There were some mushrooms growing on a dead log up here.

After some pictures, we hiked back down in a light rain.  There was a huge snail along the trail.

The rain had stopped by the time we got back to the car.

From here, we made a stop at Sugarlands Visitor Center and Harper picked out a stuffed bear for her birthday present.  Then we started driving back.  Chimney Tops was completely blanketed in clouds.

The clouds opened up as we crossed over Newfound Gap into North Carolina.

We stopped at the upper Deep Creek Trailhead and a couple other spots on the road for a view.

There was a little bear foraging along the road.

We made one final stop at Cliff Branch Falls.

The water level was low, but it was worth a quick stop since we were passing by.  Leaving the park, we stopped at Native Brews for dinner and then headed back to Bryson City.