Rainbow Falls - Bullhead

Date: 5/25/14
Distance: 14.1
New Map Miles: 12.6
Total Map Miles: 394.9

Today I hiked with Angel and her group from Louisville to Mt. Leconte.  It was a loop hike up the Rainbow Falls trail and back down Bullhead.

Before the hike, I had heard that the Rainbow falls  trail was pretty rocky, but I found it not too bad and very enjoyable.  It is a steady rise of about 4000' over 6.6 miles.

 At about 2.4 miles, there was a small waterfall.

At 2.7 miles, Rainbow falls made its appearance.

After a break at the falls, we headed on up the mountain.  The Rhododendron were blooming at one point. 

A few weeks ago, a fire burned part of the mountain along the trail.  

 Saw this flower on the way up.

 This practically tame deer was beside the trail close to the top of the mountain.

 There was a short overlook trail which was marked with signs at one point.  It was a loop.  From the overlook, you could see off toward Gatlinburg.

Off the other side, was a nice view of Mt Leconte.

Finally reached the Bullhead - Rainbow falls intersection after 6 miles.

 The 0.6 miles on up to the lodge was short but tough.  It climbed another 500 feet or so.

 The lodge was nice with lots of rocking chairs, a general store with T shirts and various souvenirs.  There was also a Dining hall which sold fresh baked cookies for 1$ and had Lemonade, Coffee and Hot Chocolate for $3.  Unfortunately the rain moved in just as we got there.  We stayed undercover at the Lodge for about 2 hours before the rain quit.  I went up the the Cliff Tops to see if there was a view before leaving.  Unfortunately this is what I found.

 I was just about to leave when the clouds started clearing.

After about 5 minutes, the view was much better.

Back at the lodge, a few more tame deer were feeding nearby.

 The hike back down started by backtracking for 0.6 miles on the Rainbow falls trail before starting down Bullhead.  I really enjoyed Bullhead.  It wasn't too rocky.  I found several nice flowers and there were several locations with nice views.

Bullhead is 6.0 miles ending on the Old Sugarlands trail.  From that point, there is a 0.4 mile walk to the car.

We started about 10 and arrived at the summit about 2:00, but we spent about 30 minutes or more at Rainbow falls.

We didn't start down until about 3:50 and I reached the car about 6:15.

Mt. Sterling - Pretty Hollow Gap - Little Cataloochee

Date: 5/24/14
Distance: 15mi
New Map Miles: 8
Total Map Miles: 382.3

Todays challenge was a shuttle hike with Angel and her friends from Louisville.  We started by leaving a couple of cars at the Little Cataloochee Trail on the Mt. Sterling Road.  We then drove up to Mt Sterling Gap to start the hike.  As always the gravel road was rough and seemed to take a long time to drive.  We started hiking about 9:40.

The hike up Mt. Sterling was a good way to get the heart pumping early in the morning.  It has a 2000' climb in about 2.3 miles.  The day was clear so there were some nice views on the way up.

At 2.3 miles the trail turns to the right to go up to the lookout tower.  The views were amazing.

After a nice visit at the tower, we backtracked 0.5 miles to the Mt Sterling Ridge trail. 1.8 miles from the tower, Pretty Hollow Gap Trail turns to the left.  This start a rather steep downhill section of the hike.  We lost about 3000' over the 6 miles or so from the tower.  The trail was steep at times and pretty muddy with more than a couple places where the trail turned into a creek.  There were also several stream crossings that didn't have bridges.  I was able to rock hop them all with relative ease.  There were also a few larger crossings near the bottom that had log bridges.

 This was an interesting fungus on one tree.

This flower was interesting.  It had a nice bloom, but is hidden beneath the leaves of the plant.

After 4 miles on Pretty Hollow, the Palmer Creek Trail turns off to the right.  This photo was from the bridge that crossed the water at that trail head.

 We continued down Pretty Hollow for another 0.8 miles before turning onto Little Cataloochee Trail.

This trail had about a 1000' climb that we weren't expecting, so it seemed extra difficult.  After 3 miles on the trail, signs of civilization started appearing.  This Cabin was the 1st indication.

The next sign was a church that I had visited before.

 The car was 2 miles from the church.

Enjoyable day in the park.