What are we to do on a sunny, gorgeous fall Monday, when I’m home for the foreseeable future and Derek is off, too?
We decided to go hiking, and we took the week day advantage by picking a normally busy trail. We hiked the Rainbow Lake Trail, along with the Bee Branch Trail, for a total of 2.3 miles.
The Rainbow Lake Trail is an easy and popular hike in Signal Mountain. From the trailhead it is 0.7 miles down to the dam.
Rainbow Lake was created in 1916 by damming Middle Creek. The lake was made for the tourists staying at the Signal Mountain Hotel.
The trail leads down to the bottom of the creek and the dam, which creates a pretty waterfall. There is a path that brings you to the top of the dam itself, if you’re brave enough to walk out there!
After spending time down at the dam, we headed to the Middle Creek suspension bridge. We were just here on Saturday, when we hiked from Signal Point.
We crossed the bridge, and started on the Bee Branch Trail, which does a wide loop around Rainbow Lake.
This entire trail was a skinny path, but it was easy to follow. It meanders up and down and around trees, rocks and trickling streams of water.
You cross the creek three times while on the Bee Branch Trail. There are also some cool rock formations along the way. We got lucky and saw some nice fall foliage, too.
It was a great idea to do this hike on a week day. We only saw six people total, with two couples. Everyone was headed in a different direction than we were, so they were quick passes. We were by ourselves 98 percent of the time.
Compared to the two other hikes we did recently (Signal Point to the Middle Creek bridge and Cravens House to Sunset Rock), this one was much easier. It was more of a flat trail, which allowed us to keep up a faster pace, and not strain our muscles as much by stepping over so many steep rocks.
