Running in Atlanta

While the Eastside Trail from Piedmont Park to the Old Fourth Ward gets the most foot traffic, the BeltLine's Westside Trail offers a very different running experience through historic neighborhoods on the other side of the city. Opened in 2017, the Westside Trail runs roughly three miles through West End, Adair Park, and Pittsburgh, connecting to Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry, one of the largest parks built in Atlanta in decades and home to a repurposed granite quarry now filled with water. The Westside Trail sees noticeably less traffic than the Eastside segment, which makes it a better option for runners who want the BeltLine's paved, car free surface without weaving around cyclists and pedestrians at every block.

The neighborhoods along the Westside Trail have a different character than Midtown or Inman Park, with historic bungalows, community gardens, and murals reflecting the area's history, since West End was one of Atlanta's first suburbs and later a center of Black owned business near the Atlanta University Center. Runners doing longer BeltLine days sometimes combine the Eastside and Westside Trails using connector segments through downtown, turning what many visitors treat as a short out and back into a genuine cross town run. Because Westside Park sits at a higher elevation with views back toward downtown, the final approach into the park from the trail includes one of the more noticeable climbs on the entire BeltLine system.

About sixteen miles east of downtown, Stone Mountain Park gives Atlanta runners access to terrain the city's hilly neighborhoods cannot match, built around the exposed granite dome that is the largest of its kind in the world. The steep Walk Up Trail to the summit covers about 1.3 miles each way with a sustained climb over bare granite, and it draws enough regular runners doing repeats that it functions as an unofficial hill training session for people preparing for races with serious elevation like the Publix Georgia Marathon. A separate paved loop trail circles the base of the mountain for close to five miles, offering a gentler option through wooded terrain for runners who want mileage without the summit climb.

Because the park sits outside the city, parking requires a paid admission unlike Atlanta's free in town trails, but many local training groups treat it as worth the drive specifically because nothing inside the perimeter offers a comparable sustained climb on exposed rock. The summit itself provides a clear view back toward the Atlanta skyline on a good day, which gives the climb a payoff that most of the BeltLine and Piedmont Park routes cannot. Runners who train regularly at Stone Mountain often pair the loop trail as a warm up with several repeats up the Walk Up Trail, a combination that has become a known workout among competitive Atlanta Track Club members preparing for hilly road races.