Sweetwater Creek Trails & Mill Ruins

Let’s hike some of the trails at Sweetwater Creek State Park on both sides of the creek.  Our hike will start with the complete loop of the relatively new Blue Trail to explore some of the more hilly and difficult eastside trails.  From there we will follow the trail back up to the Iron bridge over Sweetwater Creek.

Now on the westside of the creek, we will follow the Red trail downstream all the way to the old Mill Ruins.  When these mills were operating in the mid 1800’s, the five story Mill was the tallest structure in the entire Atlanta region.  Like most of the other mills operating in the area during the Civil War, they were also burned by Sherman during his campaign to take Atlanta. They were never rebuilt after the war.  

After a stop at the ruins, we will continue on the Red trail further downstream towards the Sweetwater Creek falls.  This part of the Red trail follows closely the shore of Sweetwater creek and has challenging footing and some short but steep climbs.  After pausing to enjoy the impressive falls, we will begin making our way back to the visitors center using the White trail.

In total, we will cover approximately 5.5 miles in about 2:15 hours.  Due to the difficult footing contained in the lower portion of the Red trail,  I would not recommend this hike for new beginners. However those with multiple D-2 and D-3 experience should be fine.

This hike is located in a State Park so parking will cost $5 or use of an annual GA State Park parking pass. There are bathroom facilities in the Visitor Center near where we will depart.  The Visitors Center an outstanding nature and history museum which you can visit if you find that you have arrived early.  No cost for the museum beyond the parking fee.