Chatt NRA North to South: Part 6 - Vickery Creek (incl waterfall wading)

This series of hikes is designed to celebrate the beautiful collection of parks that we have in "our own backyard”, the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area. Administered by the National Park Service, the Chatt NRA offers miles of scenic trails, picturesque river views, and sightings of aquatic wildlife.

While the AOC frequently offers hikes at many of these parks, I thought it would be fun to hike all the branches, starting from the most northern (Bowmans Island) to the most southern (East and West Palisades).

Part 6: Vickery Creek 

Yes we can do a waterfall hike in metro Atlanta...it is not a natural waterfall, but created by Roswell Mill Dam (built in the 1830s) and is actually very impressive when water levels are high.  But we are going to take full advantage and hang out below the falls on some rocks near the end of the hike.   So there will be plenty of time to get wet and cool off...

We will meet at the trailhead for Old Mill Park which is officially a new Roswell city park, but is essentially just the western side of Vickery Creek park....well it is the part across the creek, but I've always considered it all one and the same.

We will start out by hiking across the covered bridge and hike about 4-6 miles...it will just depend on which trails we take and also how hot and humid it is that day.

We will end up back near the falls, and those would like to can hike along the top of the waterfall...bring watershoes or just get your shoes wet.  After this we will take a somewhat steep trail down to the rocks below the falls and just relax for a awhile and enjoy the roaring water and cool breeze.  We can do some rock hopping here and also wade out into the creek to cool off even more.

You can probably stay totally dry on this hike if you really, really want to, but the option is there to cool off in the water if you'd like.   The trip leaders will certainly be doing a good bit of this.  The waterfall is very close to the parking area, so it's just a relatively short walk back from there to the cars.

Total distance should be about 5 miles and the pace will be moderate.  There are some short fairly steep hills in the park, but nothing major.  I am only rating this a D3 rather than a D2 because of the short steep section of trail down to the creek and also a short section along some creekbanks that we will include if it is dry.

We will meet at the trailhead for Old Mill Park....free parking.

From Atlanta Highway, turn onto Mill Street (across the road from Marietta Hwy).   Take a right at the first stop sign (which keeps you on Mill St) and just go down to the large parking lot at the end of the road on the left.



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This is a rain or shine event...unless there is severe weather (thunderstorms).