Morgan Falls Overlook Park Sandy Springs 2026 Update
Ask anyone who lives near Morgan Falls Overlook Park what changed there and most will mention the boardwalk. It opened in May 2025, cut the ribbon with the mayor in attendance, and settled into the landscape as if it had always been there. The assumption that follows is reasonable enough: the trail got built, the project is done, the park is finished.
It isn't. What opened in 2025 was roughly a third of a planned loop, and as of this summer, the city was still waiting on a funding decision that determines whether the next third gets built at all.
Morgan Falls Overlook Park opened in 2010, the first new park the city of Sandy Springs built after incorporating in 2005. The 30 acres sit along Bull Sluice Lake, the wide, slow stretch of the Chattahoochee formed when the Morgan Falls Dam went up in 1904. For most of its history the park has done one job well: give people a dock, a playground, some porch swings, and a quiet place to watch the river.
That job hasn't changed. What's changed is what surrounds it.
In 2019, the Sandy Springs Conservancy pitched the city on a master plan for a citywide trail network, eventually branded Springway. The plan called for 31.4 miles of trail across six zones, and the very first piece chosen for construction was a loop connecting Morgan Falls Overlook Park to nearby Big Trees Forest Preserve.
Construction on that first piece, known as Segment 2A, broke ground in December 2022 and finished in early 2025 after weather and site issues at Orkin Lake pushed the timeline back a full year. The finished product is a 1.88-mile paved trail connecting the park to Roswell Road at Cimarron Parkway, anchored by a raised boardwalk over Orkin Lake. Total construction cost ran to $8.5 million, covered by a $3 million Georgia Outdoor Stewardship grant, a Conservancy-funded matching contribution, and the remaining city cash match.
That's a real, finished amenity. It's also, by the plan's own numbers, less than half of what the loop is supposed to be.
| Segment | Length | Status as of August 2026 | What it connects |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2A | 1.88 miles | Complete, opened May 2025 | Overlook Park to Roswell Road at Cimarron Parkway, via the Orkin Lake boardwalk |
| 2C | Extends the loop to roughly 3.4 miles | Grant funding in progress | East from the park along a Chattahoochee tributary, past rock outcroppings and waterfalls, toward Roswell Road |
| 2D and 2E | Remaining mileage to close a roughly 5.6-mile loop | Not yet funded | Would connect the loop to Big Trees Forest Preserve |
According to a June 30, 2026 update from the Sandy Springs Conservancy, the city, the Conservancy, the PATH Foundation, and planning firm Kaizen Collaborative are working together on funding for Segment 2C. That piece would stretch east from the park through mature forest, past the rock outcroppings and waterfalls that make this stretch of the Chattahoochee more dramatic than its reputation suggests, before reaching Roswell Road. If built, it takes the existing 1.8-mile loop to about 3.4 miles.
A Fulton Neighbor report from February 2026 put the price tag on this next phase at $14.5 million and described a two-stage grant process: if Sandy Springs cleared the first round, a second-level application would open in spring 2026, with grant awards expected by summer 2026.
That summer is this one.
The boardwalk over Orkin Lake wasn't the ending. It was the proof of concept the rest of the loop still has to earn.
Whatever this summer's grant decision turns out to be, it determines whether next year's trail map shows a connected route all the way to Big Trees Forest Preserve, or whether Segment 2A remains an impressive dead end.
While the trail funding plays out on the land side, the park's identity as a river destination has kept expanding on its own schedule.
None of this is disconnected from the trail story. A park that's adding its first-ever competitive paddling event in the same year its trail network is fighting for its next funding round isn't standing still. It's being actively built out on two fronts at once, and both are happening in 2026.
If you live within a short drive of Roswell Road or Cimarron Parkway, the practical takeaway isn't abstract. This is the summer to actually use the new stretch of trail, not just drive past it, because the version of Morgan Falls Overlook Park you'll have access to in 2027 depends partly on a grant decision expected this summer. Walk the Orkin Lake boardwalk if you haven't. Check the schedule for the SUP Showdown if paddling interests you or your kids. And if you care about whether that loop eventually reaches Big Trees Forest Preserve, the Conservancy's public updates are the place to watch, not a rumor from a neighbor.
Sandy Springs has spent over two decades building its downtown from a strip mall parking lot into City Springs. Morgan Falls Overlook Park is going through a quieter version of the same process, piece by piece, grant by grant, with this year's decision determining how much further the trail actually reaches. For a neighborhood that gets described in real estate terms as walkable and amenity-rich, this is what that actually looks like on the ground: not a finished feature, but ongoing construction with a public paper trail you can follow yourself on the Sandy Springs neighborhood page.
If you're weighing what a home near this corridor is really worth, presentation and proximity both matter and both change over time. Darron O'Bonnon works with buyers and sellers across Sandy Springs who want a clear-eyed read on how a neighborhood's amenities, not just its median price, are actually evolving. Reach out to schedule a design-forward market consultation, including a home valuation and staging plan built around what's real on the ground today.
Whether you're in the research phase at the beginning of your real estate search or know exactly what you're looking for, you'll benefit from having a real estate professional.