Chattahoochee Bend State Park - Riverside Trail
Location and Riverside Trail Hiking Maps with Images and other Information
Coweta County, Georgia
Official Website: Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Entry Fee: $5 per vehicle
Traffic: Light to Moderate
PDF Trail Map ^
Interactive Trail Map at AllTrails >
Riverside Trail is a 3-mile (each way) there and back trail along the roiled Chattahoochee River. Following it, you will meander through dense woods, usually about 20 yards or more from the shoreline apart from a few spurs for a river view. I went past the trail turnaround and did some gravel road, non-trail walking to extend the trail to about 11 miles and make it more of a loop as mapped below.
The trail is of moderate difficulty owing mostly to hills which are not so much high or steep as ongoing. On my extended hike, I had a total of a 540 foot elevation gain. The trail is narrow, mostly clear except for a few fallen trees, but you do go through some knee-high grass. I advise tick repellent for that reason, but I attracted few mosquitoes and saw no ticks.
The first mile of the trail has moderate traffic. After that, it thins out to light to nonexistent even on the weekend. It’s well-blazed with white markers, but there are a couple of areas where it can be easy to lose the trail. This is especially true in the autumn when fallen leaves obscure areas of the trail. My AllTrails App came in handy a few times to keep on track.
The woods itself is mostly deciduous trees such as oak, but by the second mile you’ll notice some longleaf pine reaching above the canopy. I saw three deer – all of them after moving beyond Riverside Trail – but otherwise not an abundance of wildlife.
The trail is frankly not very photogenic or exciting for nature viewing, but it makes up for that in other ways. The hills provide some challenge, and it’s a great hike in summer as the forest canopy provides shade most of the time.
The park offers other trails such as Wild Turkey Trail, accessible from Riverside Trail, for a total of about 12 miles of marked hiking trail to enjoy.
Trail Images Below
Hiking Trail
Lookout Platform
Pine Forest
