Newly Completed Multiuse Trail Parallel to Cheatham Road Connects Neighborhoods to Kennesaw Mountain Park, Recreation

Completion of a new multi-use recreation path along Cheatham Road in Marietta has opened access to Kennesaw Mountain trails to more surrounding neighborhoods.

Completion of a new multi-use trail along Cheatham Road in Marietta has opened access to KeMo's trails and nature to more residents.Photo byDeanLand / OurTravelCafe.com

The new paved multiuse trail follows Cheatham Hill Road southward to Kolb's Farm. The concrete trail accommodates walkers, runners and non-motorized bike traffic. The trail route passes by multiple residential developments along Cheatham Hill Road, greatly improving park and recreational access for nearby residents.

With new road-adjacent trail work completed along Cheatham Hill Road in Marietta, we made a return visit to Kennesaw Mountain's Cheatham Hill Trail for a spring morning hike through the gently rolling terrain.

The Cheatham Hill trail at KeMo winds through meadows and woods, with wildflowers easy to find along the way.Photo byDeanLand / OurTravelCafe.com

For our morning hike, we parked at the Cheatham Hill trailhead parking lot, crossed over to the park, then headed north along the dirt trail through the wide meadow. Birds chirped and sang from the nearby trees as we stopped to admire the many wildflowers along the route. We made note of several flowering blackberry bushes, and admired the blooming dogwoods and mountain laurel.

We followed the trail as it turned toward the east along a wide path through the woods. We spotted several huge termite mounds tucked away in the woods while remaining on the patch. In the surrounding trees, we photographed nesting cardinals. One of the cardinal pair remained in the nest protecting unhatched eggs, while a nervous and noisy mate flew and hopped along nearby branches.

In a well-hidden and camouflaged nest, an adult cardinal sits with its eggs.Photo byDeanLand / OurTravelCafe.com

Turning south at the intersection of the Noses Creek Trail, we headed back toward the wooded area, and also the Texas and Illinois monuments. We often find deer feeding along this wooded section, but were disappointed that we didn't encounter any on this hike.

Passing the Illinois Monument, the ground slopes downward toward a branch of Ward Creek, and the trail descends more than 100 feet to the creek bed. Crossing the creek, we began the 135-foot ascent as we headed back toward Cheatham Hill Road.

Our GPS tracker mapped our circle route at 2.85 miles, so we added a short walk on the concrete path to bring our total to 3 miles.