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Emerald Pond Hike

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Distance:
8.3 Miles / 13.4 km
Type:
Loop
Difficulty:
Moderate
Time to Hike:
4 hours, ~9 minutes
Features:
Surface Type:
Dirt
Park:
George Washington National Forest
Town:
Stanley, Virginia
Directions:
38.642469, -78.61138
Added:
January 25, 2025
Updated:
April 12, 2025
Guide by:
Copy Trail Link Hiking this trail? Send a friend or family member a link to this trail guide for your own safety. Hike at your own risk (disclaimer)
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1,150'

Total Change
1,538'

Ascent
1,556'

Descent

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Emerald Pond Hike

Emerald Pond is a beautiful spring fed swimming hole nestled in a small hollow off the Bird Knob Trail. The water has exceptional clarity, and in the summer months is surprisingly warm for a mountain pond. It practically begs you to jump in! But that's not the only feature on this circuit, just 1.5 miles into the hike on the Massanutten South Trail on Big Mountain is a spectacular vista to the west of the Harrisonburg Valley. Want to make this hike a little longer? Then try the Browns Hollow Hike that adds the Browns Hollow and Roaring Run Trails to make for a 8.3 mile circuit.

When backpacking there is a nice campsite right on the banks of Emerald Pond. Also if you travel west homeward towards I81, make sure to stop at Pack's Custard Stand on US211 in New Market for some of the best frozen custard around!

  • Mile 0.0 - Start the hike near the front of the parking area on the white blazed Wildflower Trail, DO NOT go down the paved Nature Trail at the end of the parking area. Follow the white blazed Wildflower Trail downhill for 0.3 miles to the intersection of the orange blazed Massanutten South Trail.
  • Mile 0.3 - Turn right uphill on the orange blazed trail for the steepest section of the hike. Wind around the mountain and climb through a bolder field before arriving at the lower ridgeline in 1.0 miles. Continue uphill for 0.4 miles to the first of two great vistas. This section of the hike is where you are most likely to run into other hikers, as many hikers do not do the entire Emerald Pond circuit, but instead do the much shorter out/back to the overlook.
  • Mile 1.7 - Continue on the Massanutten South Trail for 0.8 miles to the intersection of the white blazed Bird Knob Trail.
  • Mile 1.5 - Veer right on the now white blazed Bird Knob Trail, then shortly pass an unmaintained trail on the left. In another 0.7 miles stay right as you pass another unblazed trail that connects from the left. From this point it is 0.8 miles to a large clearing near Bird Knob. Bird Knob does not have an overlook as you may expect by the name. Stay left downhill on the Bird Knob Trail as it descends through the hollow to the intersection of an old logging road.
  • Mile 3.3 - Turn left on the old logging road for 0.1 miles and arrive at Emerald Pond. Pass along the left side of the pond following a small trail to a campsite on the opposite bank.
  • Mile 3.5 - Return to the white blazed Bird Knob Trail, turn left, then in 0.5 miles pass a closed gate.
  • Mile 4.0 - Turn left onto a Forestry Service road that is also the orange blazed Massanutten south Trail for 0.4 miles to the point where the road makes a hairpin turn to the right.
  • Mile 4.4 - Stay straight passing a closed gate and continuing on the orange blazed Massanutten South Trail. In 0.6 miles from the Forestry Service road arrive at an unmarked intersection, stay right remaining on the orange blazed trail, then in 0.8 miles pass through a small clearing and arrive back at the Bird Knob Trail intersection.
  • Mile 6.2 - Turn right orange blazed Massanutten South Trail retracing your route back past the two vistas, then descending to the white blazed Wildflower Trail.
  • Mile 8.3 - Turn left on the white blazed Wildflower Trail for the remaining 0.3 miles back to the parking area and now closed Visitor Center.
Explore 104 trails near Stanley, VA
  1. Parking

    38.642469, -78.61138
  2. Main Trailhead

    38.642546, -78.611147
No community routes found. To add your own hike as a Community Route for this Trail guide, leave a Trip Report with an attached GPX file.

Hazards

Ticks - Lyme Disease More Info (CDC)
Snakes
Poison Ivy/Oak

Seasons

All

Blaze Color

Orange

Trip Reports (Reviews)

Rated 3.3 out of 5 based on 23 ratings.
By: Sorcha
8.3 miles / 13.4 km
April 27, 2019
Very enjoyable hike. Perhaps it was the low humidity and clear skies, but I felt like I was in the Rockies: path of pine needles and crushed rock once we got up on the ridge line, smells of pine, and strong updrafts with hawks circling. Emerald Pond is pretty as promised, and the ridge line portion of the walk is simple. The rhododendrons weren't blooming yet, but I can imagine that in about two weeks, they'll be out, and they're everywhere along the trail. The climbs up and down are not too challenging but steady for about mile each way: some mud from springs here and there that were slippery, and lots of rocks. I appreciated having my hiking pole for the downhill as my knees are not in the greatest shape. Some of the mileage descriptions didn't jive completely with our GPS, and total hike clocked out at 8.3 miles. I would describe the section of Bird Knob trail after the meadow as old forest road, not white blazed trail, so the description of meeting a forest road is a little confusing when two forest roads meet. There's a portion of the hike after Emerald Pond that is an active Forest Service road (a truck passed asking for directions), and that's kind of unpleasant, but it is only about a half mile, so it's over quickly.
Legacy Review
By: GradSchool
8.3 miles / 13.4 km
April 14, 2019
I was looking for a good long hike after a stressful week. I really enjoyed this one. As others have mentioned, it's easy to miss the parking lot because the visitor's center looked like an abandoned shack or someone's run-down home, so at first I thought it was a private driveway. But my GPS said I had arrived, so I turned around and drove in. There's a small parking lot, which this day had only one other car, and they were clearly wrapping up their hike. I found the instructions to be clear, the blazes easy to find. The first part of this hike is mainly uphill, which I don't mind but as it was my first longer hike of the season, I was huffing and puffing. Thank goodness for trekking poles! There are several nice campsites to pass if you want to do an overnight (which I would have done had it not been predicted to rain heavily). There are some great views once you finish the ascent, plus a couple of dry camps near the vistas (I would not relish carrying my water up there, but it could make for a lovely view). Emerald Pond was really, really pretty. I will certainly consider parking on the access road on a nicer day and bringing my boyfriend there for a little camping retreat, though as others note, it is clear this is used as a retreat for locals. I probably wouldn't want to do it on a weekend. There was so much trash, and I cursed myself for not bringing a trashbag with me. Also obvious that these folks chop down smaller trees for fire, which I always hate to see. But it really is a pretty pond. The rest of the hike is relatively flat and straightforward. The last part described is mainly downhill. I tend to dislike going down more than going up because of my knees, but it was also nice not to feel so winded at the end. But aside from the other hiker finishing up, I saw no one. Though this was on a rainy day. Overall, I liked this hike and will add it to my go-to list. I don't think I would do it in one day again, unless I could get someone to do the drive home for me! That was honestly the most difficult part at the end of a long day -- making the drive home.
Legacy Review
By: Hope
8.3 miles / 13.4 km
July 07, 2018
This was an awesome hike! A bit muddy near the beginning and quite steep but we got through that without much trouble, and the two overlooks are really beautiful. There were hardly any other people out there at the same time as us (we started at ~10 AM on a Saturday and there were maybe 3 or 4 other cars in the parking lot). We stopped to eat lunch at the pond, it was the perfect break, picturesque and cool in the shade. We did the loop on the gravel road and the Massanutten trail, and did wonder a lot about the piles of sand - it was really cool to read the reviews here later saying that they were built by ants! I've never seen anything like it. I'd hike this again, maybe in the fall to see how it changes with the seasons. I'd also agree with an earlier reviewer who said they thought it was more like 10 miles - that's what both my friend's and my fitbits said. It took us about 5.5 hours with a 30 minute-ish stop for lunch.
Legacy Review

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In Stanley, VA

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