Hiking the Sope Creek Trails to Mill Ruins in Atlanta, Georgia

Sope Creek offers hiking and running trails along a rushing creek, a serene pond and beside Civil War paper mill ruins just north of Atlanta.

A part of the  Chattachoochee National Recreation Area, Sope Creek offers some great trails and relaxation just north of Atlanta (but seemingly a world away from the city). This hiking trail is just one of many excellent trails along the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Atlanta. View our complete collection of Chattahoochee River hiking trails here.

Just outside the 285 Perimeter , Sope Creek offers a series of trails through preserved forest with connecting trails to the well-used Cochran Shoals park on the Hooch (which offers additional hiking as well as an excellent 5k running path – where we trained for our half marathon several years ago).  

Part of the charm of these trails, compared to Cochran Shoals, is that they’re much less often used by visitors, and while on the trails, we’re able to relax and forget that we’re in the Atlanta suburbs.  The park is an awesome alternative to a trip to North Georgia – some time in the woods with some pretty scenery without the drive.

Sope Creek borders the East side of the park and runs past the ruins of a paper mill from the 19th century.  The paper mill, built in 1855, destroyed by Union armies during the Civil War and rebuilt several years later, operated until 1902.  The remnants of the foundation and first story walls stand silently in the woods next to Sope Creek.

3-4 miles of hiking trails, well-marked with blue blazes, wind through the woods, intersecting each other as they run beside Sope Creek, around the picturesque Sibley Pond, and ultimately connecting to the Cochran Shoals park.

We’d rate all trails as easy to moderate in difficulty – the moderate trails being the few that descend to Sope Creek and the paper mill ruins at the North section of the park.  The Northern trails run close to Paper Mill Road and are accompanied by the sounds (and sights) of traffic  - hike in on one of the many trails deeper in the park (trail maps are numerous and posted at the parking area and throughout the network of trails) to escape traffic noise and get a little more enjoyment of nature.  The woods here are moderately thick – quickly buffering the sounds of the surrounding suburbs and – we’ve found – letting our minds pretend we’re further from the city as we hike along.

GPS Coordinates: 33.939515,-84.441905
Directions: Take Interstate 75 North out of Atlanta to Windy Hill Road (exit 260). Turn right on Windy Hill Road, and then left on Powers Ferry Road. At the intersection of Powers Ferry and Terrell Mill Road, take a right on Terrell Mill. Take a right on Paper Mill Road; the park entrance is approximately 1 mile further on Paper Mill Road on the right.

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