Powers Island Trail

Great little trail for a short walk. The walk is along water, including several seats for resting if needed and lots of shade. While it is dog friendly and an easy hike, if you're going as a family with a baby, you will want to take a carrier or trail stroller. The gravel does not make for comfort for your little one.

We had a nice time hiking on this trail on a Saturday morning. By 10:30am, all of the more southern Chattahoochee National Recreation Area parking lots were already full, so we kept traveling north and ended up at the Powers Island Trail. There was plenty of parking, and we realized they had a place where you could rent river tubes! We hiked the trail starting at PI5 in the parking lot, went up to PI6, did the loop to PI7, went to the end of the trail at PI9, and ended up back at the parking lot at PI4. Walking that entire loop took us just about an hour. There were a few sections that were mostly uphill, specifically PI6 to PI7, but it was overall very manageable. We saw families hiking with small children and their dogs. At PI9, there is a mini bamboo forest, which was cool!

This is a great beginner hike or day walk, some parts near the point are a bit muddy at times and not necessarily worth the extra twenty feet. There's a beautiful Jonquil/Daffodil patch, and great views of the river. A bridge connects to the island, and there are several places to launch kayaks. There is a hill that has some steep elevation at points, but it isn't too extreme. I hiked with a daypack and no poles. You can easily bypass the hill if you wanted a less strenuous or flatter walk. A few fallen trees to pass, but the trail looks well maintained. Nice spot for a picnic by the river.

Shorter and much hillier than Cochran Shoals across the river, but a good trail! Half of it is up against the river, and the other half loops back through the woods. The river portion is flat ground, but the loop through the woods has non-trivial hills. There are some old ruins and metal scrap off of the trail to watch out for, but the trail itself is well walked and cared for.

Pretty simple nature trail loop with a heavy emphasis on the nature part, but there are a few highlights that make it worth your while: footbridges across small streams, bamboo patches, a rock cove, and scattered views of the Chattahoochee River. If you take the east trail head in the upper corner of the parking lot, the path is wider but uphill, whereas the lower entrance is very narrow with dense vegetation crowding your walkway. Either way you go, it will take about 45 minutes to an hour to complete.