Elkwallow Trail

1.9 mi of trail, end to end · about 100 ft of climbing · 400 ft of descent · 2,450 ft–2,724 ft · earth surface · trail class Developed · hiking

Knob Mountain - Jeremys Run the Park Service's write-up

7-8 Hours · dogs allowed

Start North District (Mile 24)

A mountain dusted with snow is seen in the background of a pine tree from an overlook.

Starting at Elkwallow Wayside, this hike goes around a beautiful area of the Park featuring one of the most picturesque streams in Shenandoah. The majority of this hike is in the Shenandoah Wilderness.

Distance: 6.0-mile circuit hike

Difficulty: Moderately Strenuous ( hiking difficulty scale )

Hiking Time: 7 hours 30 minutes

Elevation Gain: 1,303 feet

Hike Description

From the parking lot at Elkwallow Wayside (mile 24), take the Appalachian Trail (white-blazed) to its junction with Jeremys Run Trail (blue-blazed).

The A.T. goes sharply left here, but stay straight onto Jeremys Run Upper Trail.

Take a right onto the Knob Mountain Cutoff Trail.

Take another right on Knob Mountain Trail (yellow-blazed). Follow it to Mathews Arm Campground registration station.

Take the Elkwallow Trail back to your starting point at Elkwallow Wayside.

Accessibility This trail does not meet ADA accessibility guidelines.

This hike on nps.gov

On the parks map

The lines are the National Park Service's public trails layer, the trailheads and the waterfalls, views, peaks and historic places along them the Service's public points of interest, read 2026-10-16 and simplified for the map; the length is the line's, end to end. The write-ups are the Service's own "things to do" text, unedited. Heights come from USGS 3DEP through Terrain Tiles on AWS (Mapzen/Tilezen), read along each line and rounded; a short trail on steep ground can be off by a few tens of feet. Closures change: check the park's own site before you go.

Elkwallow Trail

Knob Mountain - Jeremys Run the Park Service's write-up

About this trail's facts