Best Waterfalls in the Smoky Mountains

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The best waterfalls in the Smoky Mountains are Ramsey Cascades, Grotto Falls, Rainbow Falls, Abrams Falls, and Hen Wallow Falls. Mingo Falls sits just outside the park in Cherokee. Laurel Falls, usually the park’s most popular hike, is closed for rehabilitation. The National Park Service now expects to reopen it sometime in 2027. Every distance, height, and elevation figure below comes straight from nps.gov.

I’ve hiked most of these trails on different trips through the Smokies. I usually pair one waterfall with a bigger loop through Cades Cove or over Newfound Gap. My rule: put an easier fall on the first morning, while the lot still has spaces. Save Ramsey Cascades for a day with nothing else planned; it earns its full eight miles. A parking tag is required at every trailhead for stays over fifteen minutes. Most trailheads don’t sell them on site, so I buy mine online before I leave the cabin.

Great Smoky Mountains Waterfalls

Ramsey Cascades is the tallest and the toughest. Grotto Falls is the flattest walk while Laurel Falls stays closed. The table below lines up mileage, difficulty, and height, so you can match a fall to your day.

None of these hikes carries its own entrance fee. Great Smoky Mountains National Park has never charged one. The parking tag covers the whole park. One tag gets you to every trailhead below on the same day.

Six of these seven falls sit inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park itself; Mingo Falls is the one exception, on tribal land in Cherokee. Distances run from a short climb to a full eight-mile day, so read the difficulty column before you commit a whole morning to one trail. Spring generally means the most water, since snowmelt and rain both peak then; late summer and early fall usually mean the thinnest flow.

Waterfall	Round trip	Difficulty	Height	Best season / flow
Laurel Falls	2.6 mi	Closed (rehab)	80 ft	N/A while closed
Abrams Falls	5 mi	Moderate	25 ft	Spring, after rain
Grotto Falls	2.6 mi	Easy–moderate	25 ft	Year-round
Rainbow Falls	5.6 mi	Steep, strenuous	Not published by NPS	Late winter (ice), spring melt
Ramsey Cascades	8 mi	Strenuous	105 ft	Spring, for full volume
Hen Wallow Falls	4.3 mi	Moderate	90 ft	Spring–early summer
Mingo Falls (Cherokee)	Short, steep climb	Steep	120 ft	Year-round, heavy after rain

Is Laurel Falls Open?

No. The National Park Service closed Laurel Falls Trail on January 6, 2025. The project is a full rehabilitation: repaving, a widened tread, new viewing platforms, and parking-area work. It was originally scoped at about 18 months. Unforeseen ground conditions forced design changes, and the park now anticipates reopening the trail sometime in 2027.

Before the closure, this was everyone’s starter hike: a paved 2.6-mile round trip to an 80-foot fall in two rocky tiers. It’s easy enough for sneakers, with a little muscle for strollers. Until it reopens, Grotto Falls is the closest match for that easy-morning slot. Our guide to the best hiking trails in the Smokies lists other short options too.

Abrams Falls Trail Smoky Mountains

Abrams Falls is a 5-mile round trip from the Cades Cove Loop Road. It pays off with more water than its 25-foot drop suggests. The whole volume of Abrams Creek pours over a sandstone ledge into a wide pool. The path rolls more than it climbs, so it reads as moderate, not strenuous.

As of publication, the National Park Service has the trail closed Monday through Thursday from late August through September for bridge repairs. Check the park’s current conditions page before you drive out. The pool looks inviting, but the park strongly discourages swimming here; current and submerged rock have caused fatalities. Get to the trailhead early — Cades Cove’s own small lot fills before the falls parking does. Pair this hike with a slow lap of Cades Cove Loop Road for a full morning.

Grotto Falls Trail Smoky Mountains

Grotto Falls is a 2.6-mile round trip off the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. It’s the one hike here where the trail is the trick: the path runs behind the 25-foot curtain of water, not just alongside it. Expect a light mist on your shoulders as you pass. There’s more spray in spring runoff than a dry August.

The grade is gentle by Smokies standards, gaining a few hundred feet through hemlock shade. That’s why we rank it easy-to-moderate, not a flat stroll. It’s also the trail the llama trains use to resupply LeConte Lodge a few times a week. Don’t be surprised if you meet one on a narrow stretch. The trailhead sits off a slow scenic loop rather than a main road, so it draws a lighter crowd than Laurel Falls used to.

Rainbow Falls Trail Smoky Mountains

Rainbow Falls Trail runs 5.6 miles round trip. The National Park Service puts the elevation gain at roughly 1,500 feet. It calls the climb relatively steep and the trail itself very steep and rocky in spots. This is the workout option on our list, one grade below Ramsey Cascades.

The reward is a tall, narrow fall. It earns its name on sunny spring afternoons, when mist off the drop catches the light. In a cold snap, that same spray freezes into ice columns that draw their own small crowd. The trail keeps going past the falls, another 6.7 miles to the summit of Mount LeConte, though most people turn around here. The Cherokee Orchard trailhead lot is small and close to Gatlinburg. It fills before Grotto Falls does on a clear weekend.

Ramsey Cascades Trail Smoky Mountains

Ramsey Cascades is the tallest waterfall in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, at 105 feet. The National Park Service rates the 8-mile round trip as popular but relatively challenging. It gains more than 2,000 feet along the way. Save this one for a full day, good boots, and an early start.

The park finished a three-year trail restoration here in November 2024. Crews regraded about 2.5 miles of tread and rebuilt a section washed out by flood damage. The trail is now open seven days a week again; it used to close on weekdays for construction. Old-growth tulip poplars shade the lower miles, some of the largest left in the park. Greenbrier, where the trail starts, is one of the quieter ways into the park.

Hen Wallow Falls Trail

Hen Wallow Falls is a 4.3-mile round trip via Gabes Mountain Trail, out of the Cosby entrance. Per the National Park Service, it drops 90 feet down an open rock face. Cosby sees far less traffic than Cades Cove or Gatlinburg. This is the fall to pick when the famous trailheads are already full.

The path is moderate, not easy, with a steady climb through second-growth forest before it drops to the base of the falls. Go after a few days of rain and the whole rock face runs white. In a dry stretch, it thins to a few ribbons over bare stone. Cosby also has its own campground and picnic area, so the hike turns into a full day without doubling back through Gatlinburg traffic.

Mingo Falls, Cherokee NC

Mingo Falls sits just outside the national park, on Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ land off Big Cove Road in Cherokee, North Carolina. It drops about 120 feet, taller than any waterfall inside the park boundary. The falls run down a rock face behind the Mingo Falls Campground.

The trail is short but steep: a quick stair-and-path climb, not a mileage commitment. That makes it an easy add-on if you’re already spending a day in Cherokee. Because it’s outside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the park’s parking tag rules don’t apply here; the campground has its own lot. The stairs near the base get slick with spray, so take them slowly, not in flip-flops.

Every fall above is on the Tennessee side of the park, or just over the state line in Cherokee. If you’re based around Asheville instead, our waterfalls near Asheville guide covers the other side of the mountains. Our Smoky Mountains itinerary and trip-planning guide both work these hikes into a full visit. For the parking tag itself, see our parking tag guide for current pricing and where to buy one before you arrive.

Waterfalls in the Smoky Mountains

Is Laurel Falls open?

No. The National Park Service closed Laurel Falls Trail on January 6, 2025, for rehabilitation. It now expects to reopen the trail sometime in 2027.

What is the tallest waterfall in the Smoky Mountains?

Ramsey Cascades, at 105 feet, is the tallest waterfall in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, per the National Park Service. It’s also the longest hike on this list, at 8 miles round trip.

How many waterfalls are in the Smoky Mountains?

The National Park Service doesn’t publish an exact count. Its own waterfalls page says falls exist in nearly every river and stream in the park. Roughly a dozen are reachable by a named, maintained trail.

Are There Waterfalls in the Smoky Mountains?

Yes. The National Park Service doesn’t publish an exact count, but its own waterfalls page says falls exist in nearly every river and stream in the park, with roughly a dozen reachable by a named, maintained trail. It also strongly discourages swimming at or below any of them, naming drowning as one of the leading causes of death in the park, mostly from slick rock and hidden currents. Wading in calm, shallow water away from a falls is a different, lower-risk call.

Smoky Mountains Waterfalls Map

The NPS waterfalls page has the official park map. On the Gatlinburg side, Grotto Falls starts off the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, Rainbow Falls starts at the Cherokee Orchard trailhead, and Ramsey Cascades and Hen Wallow Falls start further out at the Greenbrier and Cosby entrances. On the Townsend/Cades Cove side, Abrams Falls starts from the Cades Cove Loop Road. Mingo Falls sits on the Cherokee side, just outside the park. With Laurel Falls closed, Grotto Falls remains the easiest of the group to reach.

Published September 25, 2026.