Rainbow Falls is a spring-fed plunge waterfall in Overton County, Tennessee, where a small stream on the Cumberland Plateau drops about 145 feet into a sinkhole. It lies about 10.1 miles from Livingston, near the community of Alpine, and is not the Rainbow Falls on Le Conte Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains.
The falls
The World Waterfall Database, working from lidar data, puts the single drop at about 145 feet; earlier surveys listed 110 feet. The water falls into an eroded pit cave; a 2013 visitor described most of the drop as open to view and roughly the last 30 feet disappearing inside the cave opening.
Getting there
No land manager, public trail or parking area is documented for Rainbow Falls. The one published visitor account reached it by a gated gravel road; legal public access has not been established, so get landowner permission before going.
When to go
A 2013 visitor reported that the falls shrink to a trickle in dry spells and run hardest after heavy rain.
On site
By the same account, seeing the falls means climbing down into the pit and edging along a narrow ledge, and there was logging in the area.
History and name
Rainbow Falls near Alpine was photographed on April 27, 1942, with prints held in the state archive's photograph collection. The origin of the name is not documented.
Nearby
Bluehole Branch Falls, which also pours into a cave, is about 0.2 miles away. Big Sunk Cane Falls is about 5.8 miles away and East Fork Obey Falls about 7.9 miles.
Distances are straight-line.