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Print Friendly MapThe Kennesaw Mountain to Chattahoochee River Trail, more commonly known as the Mountain to River or M2R trail aims to be Marietta's connection between two NPS units, the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park and the Chattahooche River Recreation Area.
Right now, the trail primarily stretches between Marietta and Smyrna and connects trail users to the Bob Callan-Rottenwood Creek Trail and Akers Mill Trail in near the southern trail endpoint.
Starting from the northern endpoint at the Kennesaw Battlefields National Park, the trail heads south in Marietta along a combination of off-road trails and on-road bike lanes. While the route through Marietta can be confusing, most of the route is marked with signage and maps labeled M2R at convenient locations along the way. An impressive and colorful bridge takes us over the North Marietta Pkwy NW.
At Brown Park, the trail ends for a moment before quickly picking back up about a half a mile further south along Atlanta Rd. SE. This section of the trail (sometimes called the Atlanta Road Path) follows Atlanta Rd. NW for over 3 miles until reaching Spring Road in Smyrna.
The trail here verges east and continues for nearly 3 miles along Spring Rd. once again with signage guiding users, although different signage is used as trail users move into the City of Smyrna. These signs use the full name, "Kennesaw Mountains to Chattahoochee River Trail". This is where the M2R trail connects with the Akers Mill Trail.
Parking is available at the visitor center for Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park (900 Kennesaw Mountain Drive) and in downtown Marietta in Brown Park (358 West Atlanta St SE).
See TrailLink Map for more information.
I’ve ridden on this trail many times both ways and it’s a very nice trail but it is best is you start from the Marietta Square and go towards Kennesaw mountain. The trail going towards the mountain is well paved and very good for biking as it does have a few hills along the way. Going towards the river though is not complete and is a lot harder to navigate once you go past the cemetery. I wouldn’t recommend going that way as the side walks aren’t the nicest and there isn’t much there, just road and train tracks. I’m pretty sure it is unfinished though. This trail is very nice and it is a very good trail for walking, running and biking and I would recommend taking a few friends or family members to go on it and maybe even go up the mountain
We took a family outing for a virtual 5K along the trail. We picked it up at the Marietta Square and walked toward the mountain. Wide pathways and clearly marked. Check it out!
The Spring Road Trail is another wide sidewalk type trail which requires the rider to ride alert. The trail is poorly marked and has few Bike crossing signs for the car traffic and few stop/yield signs for the bike traffic. It crosses a lot of commercial parking lot entries and exits and small roads, some of which are very rough, but the trail mostly stays on the north side of Spring Road, which is normally a busy, high speed road. It does have a few crosswalk buttons to stop cross traffic.
This trail starts at Atlanta road, where the Concord Road Trail ends and makes a turn across Spring Road and continues along Cumberland Blvd. where it connects with the Silver Comet Cumberland Connector Trail behind the Cobb County Transit bus station at the Cumberland Mall.
Also, if you continue straight along Spring Road, across Cumberland Blvd., you will arrive in about 1/4 of a mile at The Battery after crossing U.S. 41, a commercial/ office/residential development which contains Truist Park, the MLB stadium where the Atlanta Brave play.
I am new to the area, and started riding the trail at Kennesaw Mountain. Rode the trail all the way to the Confederate Cemetery in Marietta, and the trail winded very tightly and was very narrow/un-ridable at points. It was also hard to navigate-without the GPS in my phone I probably couldn't follow it.
Very nice trail from Kennesaw National Battlefield Park to almost Kennestone Hospital area. The trail also extends to the NW along Old 41 to Barrett Parkway where it joins the Noonday Creek trail extending from Burnt Hickory along Barrett all the way to Bells Ferry Road between East Piedmont/Barrett and Chastain Road. See https://cobbcounty.org/images/documents/16-0105_CobbTrailMap.pdf
The Mountain to River Trail is planned to extend to the River (and Smyrna) and much of that route is complete along Atlanta Road but not all. There is still a gap from where the trail turns to the east from Kennsaw Avenue and Tower and extends to Roselane but not yet beyond. The plan is to run along Campbell Hill to Church through downtown Marrietta and then along Atlanta Street towards Smyrna. The trail is still being developed from Roselane to Atlanta Road behind Dobbins AFB.
Here is where the trail design belays the strong bias towards recreational and wandering trails designed for a pleasant roll rather than transportation and commuter routes designed to move people efficiently. Why the trail does not continue along Kennesaw Avenue into Marrietta is beyond me except for the political reality of not disturbing the nicer older homes' already existing sidewalks to make them multi-use paths. Seems obvious to take the most efficient and already heavily used route along the sidewalks rather than extending an extra mile to behind Kennestone. This is why you will see so many bikers staying off the trail and biking Kennesaw Avenue itself and straight into Marietta--people tend to take the best route.
The portion along Atlanta Road once you get to it behind Dobbins is very nice but there is no easy way over the 120 Loop/South Marietta Parkway and for some reason the Confederate cemetery is now entirely fenced without an easy entry so you can not cross over to West Atlanta Street (a much better biking road than Atlanta Road) without risking your life to West Dixie--and by then you will just stay on Atlanta until you pick up the trail in another half mile or so and worst part behind you.
Once you get on the trail, it is excellent if a bit dirty at times until Windy Hill Road where it again truncates and you have to cross over for another mile of road until the trail picks up again in Smyrna--you may again decide to stay on the road as it is good four lane and the trail not very wide or smooth when you do pick it up. I just stay on Atlanta Road and have ridden it all the way into Atlanta without problem.
Great peaceful trails!
Atlanta Road Path travels along Atlanta Road beginning at Windy Hill Road and ends near the Dobbins Credit Union. Unfortunately, it does not yet continue all the way to Marietta. It's a nice transportation path, with a few walkers at certain times of the day. I regularly ride it to work in good weather. The path runs parallel beside a busy railroad. Atlanta Road has heavy traffic these days and between the traffic noise and the railroad noise, it's not very tranquil. However, it does provide a much needed bike path to get you off the highway between Smyrna and Marietta.
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