View: None
Trails: Cold Prong Pond Trail, Tanawha Trail / Mountains to Sea Trail
Picnic Tables: None
The Cold Prong Pond Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway is so overgrown that the forest starts at the edge of the parking lot. However, it’s not a complete right-off for there are two trails here, one a short “leg stretcher”—the Cold Prong Pond Trail—and the other the Tanawha Trail, a 13.5-mile trail that runs from the Lakeview Overlook at Price Lake to the Beacon Heights Parking Area. The Tanawha Trail is also part of the Mountains to Sea Trail, a collection of shorter trails that when strung together makes a 1,150-mile path across the state of North Carolina, connecting Great Smokey Mountains National Park with the Outer Banks on the Atlantic Ocean. I hiked some of this trail in an effort to get a photo of the Linn Cove Viaduct and it seemed like a lot of fun, but other than that I can’t say much about it. You can pick it up at many pullouts between Price Park and Beacon Heights. Here at Cold Prong Pond Overlook it is accessed via a half-mile connector trail from the parking lot.
Cold Prong Pond Loop Trail
Length: .4-mile loop
Time: 15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Unable to see Cold Prong Pond from the parking area, I decided to hike the short trail to the pond and maybe get a nice photo if the lighting was right. A trail sign in the parking lot points down a gravel path. In just a short distance from the start, the trail comes to an intersection. The path that continues straight ahead looks like a hiking trail, while if you turn left it appears as if you’ll be heading down a drainage ditch. This is actually the start of the loop, so you can go either way. Being that the trail is relatively flat, it doesn’t matter which way you go, as you won’t be avoiding any additional uphill hiking. For the record, I kept straight.
As with many trails in the area, you’ll often find yourself in a thicket of rhododendrons. There are a lot of roots on the trail surface in these areas, so watch your step.
A couple minutes later you will come to an open field and find yourself thinking, “This looks like where a pond used to be.” And that’s what sucks about the trail. This is where the pond used to be. I’ve read a few reviews of the Cold Prong Pond Trail on other websites, and nobody reports seeing a pond. Today there is nothing but a field with a tiny stream flowing through it. My GPS software map shows an Ash Bear Pen Dam, and there is no dam. Perhaps the dam was removed or collapsed long ago, which would explain why there is no longer a pond.
The Cold Prong Pond Trail is a large oval, and the pond is at the east end of the oval. Thus, at this point it curves back around to the west. The terrain is a collection of more rhododendron thickets, short stretches of forest, and large fields with some sort of flowering weed. Because not a lot of people hike the trail, some sections tend to get a little overgrown.
Rhododendrons at the very end of the Cold Prong Pond Trail located at mile post 299 on the Blue Ridge Parkway
I first hiked the Cold Prong Pond Trail back in 2015 and found it to be very overgrown and a complete waste of time. Not wanting to give a bad review to a trail that may have been fixed up, I hiked it again in 2020. It’s not as overgrown, but it’s still a complete waste of time.
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Last updated on November 10, 2023