Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area Vickery Creek

Nice place to hike in the summer. The trails are covered under the trees so the hiking was manageable in 90 degrees weather. And you know how hot and humid it gets in Atlanta when it’s 90 degrees! The trail map is bit confusing. Lucky for me, I had a friend with good sense of direction. If not, you can just follow the trail next to the water and loops around. The trail and the fall was very clean. Family oriented, dog friendly. Definitely coming back!

This was an awesome trail. get away from life. get away from your world, your cubicle and grab your significant other and just enjoy the nature … it’s peaceful the waterfalls are worth it… plenty of places to have a picnic. The trails are challenging and will make you work. Georgia I’m falling in love with you! I may have to leave California for you

Get in touch with nature right in your own backyard! I love that this is right in the middle of all the busyness of Roswell. It is a hidden gem featuring some of Georgia’s historic mills ruins, and a beautiful dam waterfall and creek with a covered bridge stretching as an overlook to the waters below. It is peaceful and all you hear is nature. :).
This is not an all day trip, it is more for sight seeing. Depending on the amount of history you want to learn, you can see everything in 15 minutes (if you just want to see what all the fuss is about — 1 ½ hours (if you like to take a few minutes to enjoy the beauty of it all). I suggest the second option, it’s good for the soul! :).
There is one area with a grill that has seating for a small party (8 – 10 people). Pictures are allowed by tourist, but any professional photographers must have a permit to take pictures on the property.

What a great place to visit on a Sunday morning! CRNA is huge and Vickery Creek Trail was a great work out. We followed Atlanta Trails guide for the trail (
). Inputted in our address in the map/​directions section, but the area was closed for maintenance on the trail. Decided then to turn around a park at Old Mill Park off of Mill Street.
Trails are about 3 — 5 miles with moderate difficulty. We got lost at a couple of turns and didn’t finish the hike till about 5 — 6 miles in. Map was a bit difficult to read. We couldn’t locate the ‘You Are Here’ square anywhere on the map. Regardless, our group and the pup enjoyed the hike. You’ll see a covered bridge, old mill ruins, and a spillway dam with waterfall. This place has it all!

This is an amazing hiking trail! Although I got lost and walked more miles than intended, I thoroughly enjoyed this outdoor area! What an amazing place! This is the perfect place to spend a few hours burning calories and take in the beauty of nature. I will most definitely be back very soon!

Where do you park? We got there to the address listed and it led us to a dead end with a big stop sign and 2 parking spaces that said don’t park. Drove around too see if there might be another entrance.

Fantastic Gem of a getaway. Beautiful scenery.
I tell everyone who moves to Roswell about thus place.
We have some great family pics here.
Spooky to know there was a terror threat here a few years ago. Google pipe bomb backpack roswell mills.

Take my dogs here regularly. Absolutely love this place! I am lucky I only live 2 miles away and get to have this gem so close. Great to take family too to read the history of the Roswell mill– great to be outdoors and enjoy the waterfall and the scenery from the river– and a great place to take pictures.

The lady with the red hair who I believe is an event planner was SO RUDE to my little sisters and I. I was lost and looking for a bathroom because my 6 year old was about to go to the bathroom on herself. I walk into the Event office asking where i could use the restroom. And she has this condescending tone with me about how «this is private property, you need to leave.» And I simply asked where the restroom was! She lets us use her restroom since my sister was about to pee on herself but she kept reminding us how WE HAD TO LEAVE as if my presence was gonna shut the whole park down! Calm your tits lady!
Seriously after her attitude, I will NEVER recommend planning an event here.
BYE FELICIA!

Great day hiking trail. Trail leads along the river, through the woods, and by a waterfall. The trail marker signs are a little confusing, should have more of a color differentiation. Great day! Found a nice big rock along the river to stop for lunch too. Would go back for sure.

Great creek trails, as expected being part of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. I’ve been here a couple of times before, but moons ago, so this review is for the southeastern section of the park that I hiked recently.
There’s a small parking lot off Riverside Dr. I think more people use the one on Oxbo Rd.
Typical, but gorgeous, Georgia piedmont forest terrain. Trails are well marked, easy to hike. There are ‘You Are Here’ maps at each of the many intersections, but they don’t all actually say where you are. If you really need to know exactly where you are, you need to keep track using the ‘VC’ marker system on the maps. It’s not that difficult.
On the trail that runs northwest along the creek, you can continue well past the end of the trail at VC 14 to under, and beyond, the bridge that crosses over to Vickery Creek Park. With some foot skills, you can go a hundred or more yards farther towards the falls. Then it becomes virtually impassable unless you want to scale the cliff. Which I tried to do, but turned back.
The waterfall over the Roswell Dam (VC 19) is very scenic and sounds nice, as falls are wont to do. You can continue well past the marked end of the trail that dead-​ends at the falls. The creek is quite a bit more serene here. In places, this (unofficial) trail runs right on the edge of the creek-​side cliff, so watch your footing. Not a place for kids.
Not difficult hiking by any means, but there are some elevation changes involved so you can get a workout if you try.
It’s a city hike, so you’ll hear city noises but the beauty of the park should drown them out. That damned leaf-​blower was annoying, however. Those things should be banned.

So much fun walking the trails and seeing Vickery Creek. It was a really beautiful day, with lots of families and dogs all on the trails. It was neat to learn of the history of the Mill; something that was completely unknown to us. I have no doubt we will be back hiking again soon!

This is an awesome hiking trail to go to during afternoons and weekends. Fun historic touches and nice and shady. Very pet friendly!

My job doesn’t require much physical work or activities during the week, so I try to do some activities over the weekend. Fortunately Atlanta has some nice parks and hiking trail within 20 mile radius. Recently, my colleague has recommended Vickery creek trail that he goes with his family at least once a month. I looked it up, last weekend I decided to give it a try along with bunch of my friends.
Vickery creek trail is one of many trails of the ‘Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area’. It’s named after a Cherokee woman ‘Sharlot Vickery’ who used to own the land around this creek.
There are two entrances to the trail, one at riverside rd (Exit 6 on 400) and another one at S Atlanta st (Exit 7 on 400). I prefer the riverside rd entrance, as it run parallel to the Chattahoochee river for some distance before turning right inland. The trail is a big loop, so it comes back to the parking lot of the riverside rd entrance. You can find driving directions at the link below, which we followed and found to be accurate.
The trail is clearly marked and has ‘You are here’ maps all over. But still it is easy to get confused and take a wrong fork. Fortunately, most wrong forks take you to some parking lot or the trail will come to end, so you can always trace your way back to the map and start over.
Even though my colleague takes his kids to this trail via riverside rd entrance (and I have seen few other parents doing the same on that day of our hike), one should note that there is a bit of walking and hiking over rocks involved. While it is generally medium difficulty for adults, it could be difficult and dangerous for kids. So parental supervision is very important, at least until you cross those rocky pathway. Don’t panic, this is still a nice way to introduce outdoors to kids — just watch out.
The hiked the entire trail and it came about 6 miles overall. Much of the trail was covered in canopy of trees, so even on a hot day we didn’t feel very hot. But still we went there prepared with backpack full of water bottles (It is very important to keep oneself hydrated, I learnt it hard way in the past).
Overall it took us around 2 hours to complete the trail — we stopped a lot to take picture & chitchat. At the end of the hike, we had loads of fun and left the trail quite hungry. I highly recommend this trail.
Am I the only one to think running on the treadmill is boring?

Now that’s it’s finally cooling off, I decided to take my newborn on a hike. I grabbed 2 new mommy friends, the baby carrier and headed to Vickery Creek. It was a beautiful hike and just the right amount of exercise for this new mommy body. I know we will be doing this hike throughout the fall. Beautiful scenery with all the sounds of nature tucked away in the hustle and bustle of Roswell.

I’ve lived here about 12 years and was never aware that there was such an extensive hiking area in Roswell.
There are 7.1 miles of hiking trails in the Vickery Creek complex, according to the
sign at the Oxbo entrance. Much of these trails go near Vickery Creek, which is somewhat of a misnomer because it’s more like a small river.
There is an old mill with a dam and a waterfall over the dam which is quite scenic. There were a few groups of primarily teenagers around the mill area, but most of the other hiking trails were totally empty.
This is a great place to go if you want some solitude with nature and a good exercise outdoors. The trails are all clearly marked with maps at crossing points, so you can’t really get lost.
I parked on Oxbo in the gravel lot, but you can also park on the other side off Mill Street, which is closer to the mill location, the dam, and a covered bridge that takes you to the other side of Vickery Creek. The Oxbo side is less crowded. If you go there, you need to go left on the trail if you’re facing the creek until you come to a bridge, then cross the bridge and you’ll be in the hiking complex.