Hiking to Rainbow Falls / Gorges State Park
Brevard to Highlands NC | Hiking to Rainbow Falls in Gorges State Park | Camping in Nantahala National Forest | February 2024
We woke up on our last morning camping in Pisgah National Forest feeling thankful for a stove that worked, a van that started, and for the time we had enjoyed in this area. Today, we decided to drive further West to Nantahala National Forest to do some more hiking and visit new places. We picked out a place where we hoped to camp that night, and then planned a route with a fun hike to do on the way, then set off on our drive West on US-64.
Today’s hike was in Gorges State Park, about 50 minutes West of Brevard. After a quick stop at the visitor center, we drove to the trailhead for Rainbow Falls. This is one of the waterfalls on North Carolina’s 100 waterfall challenge, and while we aren’t in a rush to finish the list, we like hiking to them when we can. Our attempted hikes to Bradley and Little Bradley falls a few days before showed us that it will be harder to reach some of the waterfalls — not just with more difficult trails, but also the access to some is questionable — but it’s nice to have a list to turn to when we’re trying to decide on a place to hike.
The trail to Rainbow Falls is 3 ½ miles round trip, and is classified by Gorges State Park as more challenging. When we looked at the trail’s elevation profile, we assumed that it was considered as challenging because the trail goes down into the gorge which can make going in seem easy, while the return trip is harder because it’s mostly uphill. The trail begins as a wide and very well maintained path through the woods. It was very easy to lead Charlotte, and the weather was perfect, so being the experienced hikers that we are, we weren’t concerned about the trail’s rating.
We began our descent into the gorge very gradually, the trail making long switchbacks back and forth. It was after we left Gorges State Park and entered Nantahala National Forest that things became more difficult. There were two different stream crossings, one fairly short and the other one longer, but both had a fair amount of rocks that can be used as stepping stones as long as the water isn’t too high. The first crossing was pretty shallow so we were just going to lead Charlotte across, and bless her heart, she found the rocks and decided she wanted to hop across them just like us! Since the second crossing was longer, Curtis gave her a lift across to make things easier.
It was after the second crossing that the trail actually became more difficult. It was now following the river, and was much more narrow as it hugged the side of the slope. There were also more rocks and roots in the way, and lots of steps going up and down. We started to feel like this was too much for Charlotte, but she seemed very intent on finishing the hike. We could hear the sound of the waterfall in the distance growing louder each time we turned a corner, so we pushed on and turned our focus completely on making sure Charlie was safe.
Finally, we made it up one last slope and arrived at the lookout for Rainbow Falls — and decided that it was worth the challenge! It certainly lived up to its name, with the sunlight casting a rainbow to the side of the falls. The lookout was small and super muddy, so we found a safe and dry place for Charlie to sit down, and rewarded her with treats and water. We enjoyed watching the water crash down for a while until more people arrived, then decided to head back to give them room to enjoy. There’s another waterfall a quarter mile further down the trail, but we decided to pass on it today since the trail had ended up more challenging than expected.
Curtis decided to carry Charlotte for as much as he could of the more difficult section just to keep her safe, and to speed up our return trip a little. When we made it to the longer stream crossing, she refused the lift this time and happily waded through the water to the other side. After that, the rest of the hike went by quickly and was pretty uneventful. We made it back to the van around noon and enjoyed a picnic lunch in the sunshine. Altogether the hike was 3 ½ miles, with the hardest part in our opinion being the last half mile to the falls. If you’re interested, check out our AllTrails recording here.
After we were finished at Gorges State Park, we drove South on NC-281 down to South Carolina, then after a short scenic drive went North back into North Carolina on SC-107, where we took forest roads into Nantahala National Forest until we came to Ammons Branch Campground, a free camping area with 3 small sites deep in the forest. We didn’t have any reception, but it was a surprisingly nice site, and we enjoyed our night here. We probably could have stayed longer than one night and found other hikes to do nearby, but on the following nights opted for campgrounds that weren’t so far out of the way down long winding forest roads.
