Happy Trails

Plenty of Good Hiking Spots in Cobb County

BY DONNA HARRIS

For people who love to hike, Cobb County offers a number of places to wear out your walking shoes.

An extensive system of more than 120 miles of federal, county and city trails covers the entire county, and some trails also connect or will connect with trails in other counties to provide a number of recreational opportunities and an alternative form of transportation.

The Cobb County Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs (PARKS) Department manages 60 miles of paved and natural-surface trails, and the Cobb Department of Transportation (DOT) maintains the trail system map, which identifies multiuse and recreation trails that are existing, planned and programmed, according to the Cobb comprehensive PARKS master plan.

Cobb Trails

Silver Comet Trail, Noonday Creek Trail and trails in Allatoona Creek Park are among the most popular hiking sites in the county.

•Silver Comet Trail

Probably the best-known trail in Cobb County, Silver Comet is a 60mile multiuse, paved trail stretching from Smyrna into Alabama. Cobb’s section is a 12.8-mile path in the southern part of the county that was developed along an abandoned rail line once traveled by the Silver Comet passenger train. Connections to other city and county parks are planned.

•Noonday Creek Trail

Noonday is a paved multiuse side path and greenway trail that extends for 7 miles from Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park to the Noonday Creek trailhead on Bells Ferry Road, connecting Kennesaw Mountain to Town Center and Kennesaw State University (KSU). Opened in September 2014, the trail is accessible for a variety of recreational users, including walkers, joggers and cyclists. Connections can be made from the West Cobb/Barrett Parkway, Mountain to River and Big Shanty Road trails.

•Allatoona Creek Park Trails

The 1,450-acre Allatoona Creek Park, Cobb’s largest park, contains 40 miles of naturalsurface multiuse trails, making it the most extensive trail system in the county.

The Acworth park also is home to the largest purposebuilt multiuse trail in Georgia. “Purpose-built means that the entire trail system was professionally designed and constructed as a destination trail system,” said John Purcell, recreation program coordinator with Cobb PARKS.

The trails host a variety of events, including cross-country races for eight local high schools, the Georgia Cycling Association race series, three running races and four bike races conducted by promoters, mountain bike and cross-country camps, bike clinics, trail workdays, night hikes, group rides, wildlife walkabouts and hiking clinics.

Purcell added more trails will be constructed in the future, including one that will connect the Allatoona Creek Greenway to Price Park in Kennesaw.

Community Improvement District (CID) Trails

There also are two fairly interconnected networks of greenways and trails in the Town Center CID and the Cumberland CID, according to the 2018 Greenways and Trails Master Plan (GTMP), which focuses primarily on trails outside park properties. Trails throughout the Town Center CID mainly link to Noonday Creek and include facilities on Big Shanty Road, the KSU walking trail and Town Point Parkway. In the Cumberland CID, key trails include the Bob Callan Trail; segments on Cumberland Boulevard, Circle 75 Parkway and Interstate North Parkway; and Akers Mill Road.