Rainbow Falls: An Unintentional Adventure

On Saturday, May 16, Casey, myself, our children, my brother Mark, his wife Amy, and their 2 young boys headed to the Great Smoky Mountains for an relatively easy day hike to Grotto Falls (~1.4miles one way). When we arrived, a tree was blocking the entrance to the trail head, and we were told by a park ranger that it may take a few hours. We debated our options, decided to stay for a bit, explore Ogle Place, and have lunch. We periodically checked in with the ranger, but we had no luck with the trail.
On the advice of the ranger, we decided to try Rainbow Falls. As he said, we could go as far as the kids could take it, see some neat sites along the river, and then turn back. So, we set out. The sign said 2.6 miles to Rainbow Falls. This was after about 0.5 miles from where we were parked. The little ones had no desire to walk until near the end when Ava suddenly took off. They proved themselves to be quite the little hikers. About 5 hours later (I kid you not!)and thanks to shear determination, Casey, myself, Ava, and Isabella reached the falls. Remember from an earlier post that we met the rest of our party on the way down and Isabella turned around and climbed the last stretch, again.
The top was spectacular. I wish I could've stretched out with a book while being sprayed by the waterfall and just enjoyed God's amazing handiwork, but we had to get back down. We did see some interesting wildlife, including three very people-friendly squirrels at the falls, a salamander, centipedes, white-tailed deer, and most of all a momma bear with her 3 cubs. we watched as the cubs played and momma turned up rocks and drank water from underneath. We were close enough to see her claws. We also saw one scaredy-cat...ME!! Stupid tourists behind us kept insisting loudly, "Ah, it's ok. They are used to people!" I made all of us get in the car- fast. However, as Caleb pointed out, if she had come after us, she would've gotten the people behind us first, so I shouldn't be scared!