While planning a county run and a ride down the Virginia Creep trail, the intersection of the three states of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia is quite close to the Whitetop trailhead for the Virginia Creeper.
This state intersection is referred to as a tripoint. The United States has 60 tripoints with 36 tripoints on land. The NC-TN-VA tripoint itself is at the highest elevation for the tripoints east of the Mississippi River.
From NC (seasonal)
- Navigate to the Pond Mountain Game Land entrance waypoint to ensure mapping app routes from the NC and not the VA side.
- If the entrance gate is open, continue driving to the Alternate parking for Pond Mountain Hunt Camp waypoint, where you will find another gate. Park here if this gae is closed.
- If the gate is open, continue driving to Parking for Pond Mountain Hunt Camp waypoint and park.
- Begin the out-and-back, 5+ mile hike from the gate at the Pond Mountain Hunt Camp waypoint.
- Reference points have been provided along the hike to keep you on course. The trail is easy to moderate until it reaches the Last Hunt Camp waypoint, where it goes into the woods and follows a rough. rocky trail for a 1000 feet or so after which it levels out and reaches the top, passing the abandoned house.
- Follow the gravel road from the abandoned home until until it reaches the tripoint.
If it is out of season to access Pond Mountain Game Land directly with the above directions, please navigate to the Burnt School Cemetery waypoint instead. Parking is found beyond the cemetery.
From VA (no longer recommended)
- From the Whitetop Station waypoint, pick up Pond Mountain Ln. Navigate to the Pond Mountain Ln trailhead waypoint to help your mapping app route from the VA and not the NC side.
- At the Pond Mountain Ln trailhead wayoint, state maintenance ends on the road. However, the road was in decent shape with several homes up the road. Continue up the Pond Mountain Ln road.
- Pond Mountain Ln is a one lane road with a few wide spots in case you meet someone on the road. We had to reverse 0.25 miles after meeting campers on their way down the mountain.
- After passing the last house, arrive at the National Forest boundary marker waypoint. If you are not in a 4WD, I would recommend parking here and hike the remaining 0.5-miles to the tripoint. Othewise, drive on up if you have the means.
Logging Requirements
Once you find your way to GZ, please do the following:
- Post a photo or screenshot of your GPSr device/phone that clearly displays the elevation when you are at the tripoint benchmark.Providing the elevation as an answer is not sufficient.
- Post a photo of yourself (whatever you are comfortable with) and the benchmark.
- OPTIONAL - If you drove to GZ, please post a photo of your vehicle at GZ, along with info on any driving mishaps on the way to GZ. This will give the community an idea of what can make it.
Enjoy the journey!
Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.