Paces Mill Trail in Vinings: Routes, Floats and Park Access

The meadow at Paces Mill is heading into its second fall. This part of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area now has a parking hub with a bus-drop loop, boardwalks rebuilt down to the water, and native plantings graded to catch stormwater before it reaches the river. All of it opened with a ribbon cutting on June 9, 2025.

Paces Mill is where trips on this stretch of the river end. Floats from upstream finish here. The four-mile creek trail from the Cumberland office parks finishes here too. The renewal was built around arrivals, and the one piece designed to greet people once they get here is now scheduled for 2027.

What the first $6.3 million built

The renewal is called New Day Palisades. It's a two-phase, $15.8 million project covering 22 acres of greenspace and riverfront trail. The Cumberland Community Improvement District, the nonprofit One Cumberland and the national recreation area run it together. Phase One cost $6.3 million. The CID put in $4.3 million and federal appropriations covered $2 million.

According to the CID's announcement of the reopening, the new parking and drop-off layout was designed to keep pedestrians apart from cars for a site that draws more than 270,000 visitors a year. The rebuilt boardwalks and gently graded paths are meant to bring any visitor, regardless of ability, to the water's edge within minutes. CID board chair Bob Voyles described the goal at the ceremony:

"We imagined a front porch on the Chattahoochee in the national park that belongs to everyone... every school bus, wheelchair, kayak trailer, and pair of hiking boots can arrive safely, move easily, and experience the river up close."

Voyles's list is mostly about getting here. Buses, wheelchairs, trailers and hiking boots all need a way in, and Phase One spent its money on exactly that.

Three ways in, one place to finish

The National Park Service describes Paces Mill as the park's last exit point for canoes, kayaks, rafts and tubes. On this stretch of the river, it's where the paddling ends. The Bob Callan Trail ends at the same spot. It's a four-mile multi-use route that follows Rottenwood Creek from Terrell Mill Road down to the river at Paces Mill.

The short Whitewater Creek float suits an afternoon. The longer run from Powers Island takes more planning, and both finish at the same boardwalks. For anyone floating, that means a second car or a ride waiting at Paces Mill, since this is the take-out and not a put-in.

The creek trail found its last link a year ago

The Bob Callan Trail took years to reach the river. Its final phase opened in September 2025. That phase added a 0.3-mile extension and a new trailhead at Windy Hill Road, completing the route from Terrell Mill Road to Paces Mill. In a Cumberland district profile from August, Georgia Trend ran a photo of the Windy Hill trailhead and called the whole route "the 4-mile Bob Callan Trail."

The Park Service lists two ways onto the Rottenwood Creek Multi-Use Trail: the Akers Drive trails, or the Bob Callan Trailhead at Interstate North Parkway. On foot, that makes the offices and apartments along Interstate North and Windy Hill feel connected to the river. If you start inland, the walk runs downhill along the creek to the meadow and boardwalks, and the river comes at the end.

Before you pull into the lot

The renewed parking hub hasn't changed how the national park charges for entry. According to the NPS fees page for the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area:

1. A one-day vehicle pass costs $5 and covers everyone in the car.
2. An annual pass for this park costs $40. The America the Beautiful annual pass costs $80 for residents and $20 for seniors.
3. The park doesn't accept cash.
4. A pass doesn't reserve a parking space, and parking isn't guaranteed.

For that reason, the Park Service suggests that day-pass users wait to buy until they've parked. QR codes linking to the payment site are posted in the lot. The fees page was last updated in 2024, so check current prices on nps.gov before your first visit. With 270,000 annual visitors, the parking point matters most on a clear fall Saturday.

Downstream, the river trail idea gets its first finished piece

A few miles down the river, the arrival idea is being tried at a much larger scale. Chattahoochee RiverLands is a 100-mile linear park concept meant to connect 20 cities and seven counties along the river through metro Atlanta. Urbanize Atlanta reported that its first finished section of trail had a ribbon cutting scheduled for Thursday, October 8. Afterward, the Marietta Daily Journal reported that the trail was open.

The Riverview Park Trail is in Smyrna at 6275 Riverview Road SE, on the west bank of the river just north of U.S. 78. It runs through a 12-acre linear park, past a parking area, and offers river views and shaded stretches. Smyrna Mayor Derek Norton, Cobb Commissioner Monique Sheffield and the Trust for Public Land were scheduled to open it together. Urbanize and the MDJ both call it a half-mile trail. The RiverLands project page lists the segment at 0.3 mile.

For now it's a short trail and a short drive from Vinings. What it promises is bigger. The Trust for Public Land plans for the Cobb RiverLands Showcase to eventually run three miles, linking Riverview Landing south to Discovery Park and Mableton Parkway. The project page doesn't give a schedule for those remaining links.

The welcome building moves to 2027

Back at Paces Mill, the part of the renewal designed for visitors after they arrive is still on paper. When Phase One opened in June 2025, the CID said the $9.5 million Phase Two would start in 2026, as funding allowed, and finish in spring 2027. It listed a new visitor information center with better restrooms and changing facilities, an open-air pavilion, and more access to the river.

The schedule has slipped since then. Georgia Trend's August 31, 2026 profile says Phase Two is scheduled to go to construction in 2027 and will add scenic overlooks and a new visitor information center. The original plan had the work wrapping up in 2027. Now 2027 is when it's set to begin. For the float crews and creek-trail walkers who end their day here, that means at least another season without the changing rooms and pavilion the plan promised.

The trail network is also waiting on a larger project. The Cumberland Sweep is estimated at about $150 million and would add more than three miles of multimodal paths connecting Truist Park, The Battery Atlanta, Cumberland Mall, Cobb Convention Center-Atlanta, Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, and the district's trails and parkland. It's still a plan, not an open route. If it gets built, it would tie the Bob Callan Trail and Paces Mill into everything else in Cumberland.

On the near calendar

Chattahoochee Riverkeeper lists an Atlanta Paddle Cleanup for Saturday, November 14. The Riverkeeper events calendar gives the location only as metro Atlanta and says registration details are still to come. Until then, the meadow and boardwalks at Paces Mill are open to the $5 day pass, and the short float from Whitewater Creek still finishes at the same take-out.

If you've wondered how places like Paces Mill and the Bob Callan Trail fit into daily life around Vinings, or how the 2027 work could change the riverfront, I'm happy to talk it through over coffee or on a walk. Kim Waldron would be glad to hear which part of the river you treat as your own. Let's connect.