Shenandoah National Park, VA
Stone walls and a river view on an easy campground loop.
Overview
Map & elevation
Plan your hike
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 trailhead
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 this trailhead in the Parkwolf Shenandoah Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“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!!!!”
Trail guide
Traces Trail is a 1.7-mile circuit around Mathews Arm Campground. Allow about 1 hour 15 minutes. It is an easy, mostly wooded walk with a former homesite and one rock-ledge view across the Shenandoah River toward Massanutten Mountain. The tread is fairly smooth, with a few moderately steep places; this is a short history-and-view break, not a vista hike. It is not ADA compliant.
Start and finish at the Mathews Arm Campground registration parking area near mile 22.2 on Skyline Drive. No reservation is required, and the park entrance fee applies. The campground is seasonal; check whether this lot is reachable outside the campground season before setting out.
Follow the blue blazes around the campground. At the connector junction about 0.4 mile in, stay with Traces Trail rather than taking the side route. The circuit crosses Mathews Arm Trail and a campground road before returning to the registration lot. Pay attention at those junctions so you do not drift onto a longer connector.
Low stone walls and old road beds are the clearest signs that people lived and worked here before the park. Shenandoah was assembled from more than a thousand privately owned tracts, and residents gave up their land and homes as the park was created. Treat the remains as protected cultural traces: look, but leave artifacts where you find them.
A rock ledge opens across the Shenandoah River toward Massanutten Mountain. It is a brief opening in an otherwise wooded loop. Elkwallow Wayside, about two miles from the campground, has food service and camping supplies if you want a separate stop.
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
ModerateOverall Run Falls5.1 mi · 4 hr · 0.1 mi awayThe gorge view still pays off when the falls run low.
ChallengingPiney Branch and Piney Ridge Loop10 mi · 8 hr · 0.7 mi awayWalk Piney Branch’s cascades before climbing the wooded Piney Ridge.
ModerateSugarloaf Loop5 mi · 3.5 hr · 0.7 mi awayA wooded five-mile circuit to a rocky view above Hogback.ChallengingOverall Run Falls and Heiskell Hollow Loop15.6 mi · 13 hr · 0.8 mi awayA three-day backcountry loop linking waterfalls and Heiskell Hollow.
ChallengingOverall Run, Piney Branch & Jeremys Run Loop34.2 mi · 1 day · 0.8 mi awayFour hiking days link a 93-foot waterfall and three wilderness streams.ChallengingOverall Run Falls and Piney Branch Loop22.3 mi · 18 hr · 0.8 mi awayThree-day backcountry loop past Overall Run Falls and Piney Branch.
ChallengingTuscarora Trail through Shenandoah8 mi · 6 hr · 0.9 mi awayAn eight-mile one-way traverse past Overall Run’s gorge and falls.
ChallengingKnob Mountain – Jeremy's Run Loop13.3 mi · 9 hr · 1.6 mi awayA long wooded loop with repeated crossings of Jeremy's Run.
Campground · 0.2 mi awayMathews Arm CampgroundWooded campsites, an easy loop, and no showers or hookups.
Sight · 0.7 mi awayPiney River CCC BuildingA modest CCC office tied to Shenandoah’s early park design
Scenic pullout · 0.8 mi awayRattlesnake Point OverlookPick out six Blue Ridge peaks from a meadow-framed roadside view.
Sight · 0.9 mi awayHogback OverlookLayered ridges lead north toward the Alleghenies on clear days.
Lodging · 1.2 mi awayRange View CabinA hike-in cabin with a signed stone from 1933.Sight · 1.5 mi awayOverall Run FallsA long hike earns Shenandoah's highest falls and a wide gorge view.
Picnic area · 1.6 mi awayElkwallow Picnic GroundsA wooded picnic loop beats lunch in the car on Skyline Drive.
Food · 1.6 mi awayElkwallow WaysideA practical Skyline Drive stop for smash burgers and camping supplies.Parkwolf’s Shenandoah ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
