Sight · Shenandoah National Park
A long hike earns Shenandoah's highest falls and a wide gorge view.
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The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Shenandoah Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Shenandoah National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Shenandoah audio tourRecorded for this place
Mathews Arm: The Hike to Overall Run Falls“You're nearing Mathews Arm, where a substantial hike leads to Overall Run Falls. The ninety-three-foot drop is the park's highest, with a wide gorge view, though it can have little or no flow after dry weather.”
Plays as you drive up to Overall Run Falls in the Parkwolf Shenandoah Tour Guide.
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“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Overall Run Falls is a 93-foot waterfall in Shenandoah's North District, the park's highest. It sits in federally designated wilderness and takes a substantial hike to reach. The Mathews Arm route is 5.1 miles round trip with 1,291 feet of climbing; allow four to five hours. Do it for a real waterfall walk and a wide Blue Ridge gorge view. Skip it if you're after a quick roadside stop.
Start at the Mathews Arm Campground registration parking area. Follow Traces Trail to yellow-blazed Mathews Arm Road, which becomes Mathews Arm Trail. Stay right at Beecher Ridge Trail; at Tuscarora-Overall Run Trail, turn left. The route spends much of its elevation on the way down, so you earn it again on the return. It's rated moderately strenuous, and the uphill stretch is the part visitors most often find tiring.
A short side trail leads to a view of the upper falls. Continue another 1,300 feet downhill on the main trail for the larger, 93-foot drop. That last descent is worth knowing about before you reach the upper falls: if your time or legs are running short, that's a natural place to turn around.
Unless rain has been plentiful, the falls may have very little flow or none at all. The west-facing gorge and ridges are a reliable part of the scene, even when the cascade is only a thread. For a photo, leave the dark rock and open gorge around the water rather than cropping tightly; the wider view gives the falls their setting.
Overall Run has cut a stream gorge into the mountain slope. Shenandoah's oldest rocks are about 1.1 billion years old, and streams have kept carving the Blue Ridge landscape over deep time; freezing and thawing also widens cracks and loosens rock. That's the regional story behind the rugged setting here, rather than a separate origin story for this one waterfall.
The approach joins the Tuscarora-Overall Run Trail. It's part of the 252-mile Tuscarora Trail, conceived as an alternative to the Appalachian Trail and also known in Virginia and West Virginia as the Big Blue Trail.
Carry water and food for the outing; there is no service at the falls. The park entrance fee applies, with no separate hike reservation listed. Dogs are allowed on a leash no longer than six feet. This trail is not ADA accessible.
Wildlife
325 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
21 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
1,036 sightingsWhite-tailed DeerMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
167 sightingsWild TurkeyMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
93 sightingsTimber RattlesnakeMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
24 sightingsCoyoteMost seen around 6 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Shenandoah. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
EasyTraces Trail1.7 mi · 1.3 hr · 1.5 mi awayStone walls and a river view on an easy campground loop.
ModerateOverall Run Falls5.1 mi · 4 hr · 1.6 mi awayThe gorge view still pays off when the falls run low.ChallengingOverall Run Falls and Piney Branch Loop22.3 mi · 18 hr · 1.6 mi awayThree-day backcountry loop past Overall Run Falls and Piney Branch.ChallengingOverall Run Falls and Heiskell Hollow Loop15.6 mi · 13 hr · 1.6 mi awayA three-day backcountry loop linking waterfalls and Heiskell Hollow.ChallengingOverall Run, Piney Branch & Jeremys Run Loop34.2 mi · 1 day · 1.6 mi awayFour hiking days link a 93-foot waterfall and three wilderness streams.
ChallengingTuscarora Trail through Shenandoah8 mi · 6 hr · 1.6 mi awayAn eight-mile one-way traverse past Overall Run’s gorge and falls.ChallengingOverall Run and Beecher Ridge Loop from Thompson Hollow8.4 mi · 5.5 hr · 1.7 mi awayWaterfall views, stream crossings and a wooded ridge keep this loop varied.
EasyThompson Hollow to Overall Run Cascades2.2 mi · 1.3 hr · 1.7 mi awayA short wooded out-and-back to Overall Run’s small cascades and pools.
Campground · 1.3 mi awayMathews Arm CampgroundWooded campsites, an easy loop, and no showers or hookups.
Sight · 1.6 mi awayHogback OverlookLayered ridges lead north toward the Alleghenies on clear days.
Scenic pullout · 2.2 mi awayRattlesnake Point OverlookPick out six Blue Ridge peaks from a meadow-framed roadside view.
Sight · 2.2 mi awayPiney River CCC BuildingA modest CCC office tied to Shenandoah’s early park design
Scenic pullout · 2.3 mi awayLittle Devils Stairs OverlookA quick pause for the steep gorge and layered ridges
Scenic pullout · 2.4 mi awayLittle Hogback OverlookA small roadside view of Browntown Valley and the Appalachian Trail.
Lodging · 2.7 mi awayRange View CabinA hike-in cabin with a signed stone from 1933.
Scenic pullout · 2.9 mi awayMount Marshall OverlookPiedmont views from a pullout with a John Marshall land story.Parkwolf’s Shenandoah ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
