Walk down the stairs from the small lot at 460 Collier Road NW and the sound of traffic drops away inside of thirty seconds. The creek starts talking. A wooden railroad trestle rises about thirty feet overhead, wide enough to shade the path underneath. A meadow opens on the right. Somewhere between the playground and the second bridge, most people forget they are still inside the perimeter.
Tanyard Creek Park gets described, over and over, as a quiet in-town green space. That undersells it. The park is the anchor of a stitched-together corridor that gives Collier Hills residents access to a golf course, a historic tennis center, a second park, and one of the most secluded stretches of the Atlanta BeltLine, all on foot from the neighborhood. Most Atlanta neighborhoods have one of those. Collier Hills has all of them, connected by a single paved path. That is the argument for spending more Saturdays here than you probably do.
The one mile most neighbors underuse
The park itself covers 14.5 acres stretching from Collier Road south to Ardmore Park, and roughly one mile of the BeltLine trail runs through the middle of it. That mile is the piece worth learning by heart.
Heading south from the Collier Road trailhead, the path drops down a series of stairs and landings, turns right, winds along the creek past a large playground, crosses a metal and concrete bridge, then passes under a 30-foot-tall wooden railway structure at just under a half mile. Turn around at the neighborhood access point and head the other direction, and you pick up the northern half. The trail ducks under the Collier Road bridge past a mural, meanders under a tall forest canopy along the creek, crosses a second bridge at one mile, then exits the shade beside Bobby Jones Golf Course and reaches its northern trailhead at 1.3 miles.
That is a two-mile out-and-back if you start at Collier Road, and the paved trail runs nearly level over its course, with very gradual elevation changes. It is one of the flatter miles you can put in without leaving Buckhead.
The AllTrails and BeltLine numbers disagree on the total length because they are measuring different things. The Northside Trail winds for 2.9 miles from I-75 through Tanyard Creek Park to Peachtree Creek if you take the whole corridor, while the segment through the park itself is closer to a mile. Both are correct depending on where you stop.
The layer underneath the walk
Here is what the trail runners jogging past the parking lot almost never notice: they are running through a battlefield.
The small parking lot on Collier Road features a large historical marker with details about the Battle of Peachtree Creek, an important Civil War battle fought all around this area, with numerous historical markers to be found throughout the park. There is also a historic mill site across Collier Road that most weekend visitors walk right past on the way to their cars. If you have lived here for years and never stopped to read the plaques, that is one Saturday morning well spent.
The wildlife on the trail is its own small argument for slowing down. You might spot turtles sunbathing on rocks, industrious beavers, or owls perched in the trees if you go at the right hours. The creek has fishing spots and rocky sections shallow enough for kids to explore on hot days.
Where the trail actually delivers you
This is the part of the corridor that changes the way you think about the neighborhood.
From the northern end of the park, if you follow the trail north it takes you under Collier Road to the Bitsy Grant Tennis Center, the Bobby Jones Golf Course, and Atlanta Memorial Park. On foot. From your house.
Three amenities most Atlanta neighborhoods either lack entirely or drive to sit inside a walkable loop from Collier Hills front doors. That is the sentence to put on a mental note. It is also why the second parking area at 384 Woodward Way, around Atlanta Memorial Park, matters. If you are meeting friends for a walk and one crew is coming from outside the neighborhood, that lot puts them on the north end of the corridor and lets you meet in the middle at the trestle.
Two trailheads, two moods. Collier Road at 460 puts you above the park with a staircase down to the creek and the historic markers. Woodward Way at 384 puts you near Memorial Park and the golf course. Locals who know the trail switch between them depending on which section they want to walk that day.
The southern end of the corridor is the other direction worth learning. Past Ardmore Park, the trail winds through Ardmore Park on the way to the Atlanta BeltLine rail corridor, meaning your Saturday walk can dead-end at the wider BeltLine network if you feel like extending it.
Practical Saturday planning
A few facts worth keeping on hand:
- Hours. The park welcomes visitors daily from 6 AM to 11 PM.
- Parking. There is a small parking lot available, but it tends to fill quickly during busy times. If you live within a ten-minute walk, do the walk.
- Stroller and accessibility note. The Collier Road entrance is not handicap accessible or stroller friendly, because stairs lead down to the park and the Northside BeltLine Trail from the parking lot. The Woodward Way approach is a better bet for strollers.
- Access points to remember. Collier Road Parking Area, Colonial Homes / Bobby Jones Golf Course, Ardmore Road, and Tanyard Creek Trail at Goodson Way. Four ways in. Most neighbors use one.
- Dogs. The park is quite pet-friendly, with waste stations throughout to keep things clean.
The corridor is best in the shoulder hours. This is a very popular area for hiking, mountain biking, and running, so you'll likely encounter other people while exploring. Early Saturday morning and the hour before sunset thin out the crowd, and the light through the canopy in either window is the reason people take photos on the trestle.
Where to end up afterward
The corridor does not have a coffee shop planted in the middle of it, which is part of the appeal. What it does have is Collier Road at the top, which puts you a short drive or a longer walk from a handful of neighborhood spots. Howell's Kitchen and Bar sits on Collier Road inside the wider Collier Hills orbit and is one of the closer sit-down options after a walk. The Howell Mill corridor to the west is minutes away by car for anything you can't find on Collier itself.
If you are the kind of neighbor who likes to make an event of it, the meadow inside the park is a broad, grassy meadow that lies on the trail's right side, the perfect venue for a post-run stretch, and the picnic tables near the playground are first-come. Bring the blanket. Skip the reservation.
The Collier Hills argument in one sentence
The neighborhood's best amenity is not one park. It is the walkable string of them, connected by a mile of BeltLine that runs through a Civil War battlefield, past a train trestle, and into a golf course and a tennis center most people in the city have to drive to reach. If you already live here, the assignment is simple: pick a trailhead you don't normally use this weekend and walk the other direction.
If you are thinking about what a home in Collier Hills is actually worth living for, this corridor is a large part of the answer. Ashley Altenbach knows the intown Buckhead pockets, the streets that back up to the trail, and which listings put the trestle bridge inside a morning routine. Contact Ashley to discuss your home or find your next in-town property.