Sweetwater Creek - D4

Join me for 11 miles of hiking at Sweetwater Creek State Park - where history and pop culture meet with some beautiful hiking trails. 

We’ll begin our hike on the White trail, which will take us through the Jack’s Hill area (a former farming community). We’ll pass Jack’s Lake and hike along a lovely branch creek to Sweetwater Creek. Here we’ll take a hard left up the short but fierce Brown trail to get some elevation gain. We’ll be doing some zig zagging on the White and Green trails to finally reach the Red trail that runs along Sweetwater Creek. That will take us up to the Manchester Mill ruins. This mid-19th century textile mill has more recently been featured in the Hunger Games movies. 

After taking the White trail up to the Visitor Center for a short break and snack time, we will head out on the Yellow trail (more elevation gain), veer off on the Orange trail and back to the Yellow trail, returning to the Visitor Center.

The Red trail will take us across some rocky terrain so if you’re not comfortable scrambling across rocks, you may want to sit this one out. I will maintain a roughly 3 mph pace for the hike so be prepared to maintain this pace. We’ll need to stay fairly close together as there are a lot of turns on these trails. The elevation gain will be approximately 1500 feet. This is a long solid D4 hike so please be ready with good hiking boots and enough water (you can refill at the Visitor’s Center on our break). I ask that you have solid D3 and up experience.

Sweetwater is a beautiful park with lots of history. If time allows after the hike, I encourage you to visit the excellent history and nature center.

We'll meet in the parking area for the Visitor Center. Please arrive early to allow time for a pit stop if needed (there are restrooms here) and introductions. There are also restrooms across the parking lot in stand-alone building.

Note: There is periodic maintenance at the park, and if trails are closed, we will need to modify our route.

$5 day pass or $50 annual pass. Both can be purchased on site or online. Day pass can be purchased at the kiosk in the parking area. You can also check out a Georgia State Parks pass at most public libraries. (But it's a good thing to support the parks and pay for a pass).

Special thanks to Joyce B. for this excellent write-up!