Atlanta

ATLANTASTARTER

Ashes and Rings

≈ 2,000 steps1.0 mi · about 2 hoursStarter · 3 stops · 500 credStart where you live.

Three stops across downtown on foot, from the Olympic fountain to the phoenix the city put on its own seal to the gold dome of the Capitol. About a mile and a half of sidewalk, two hours, and nothing to pay at any of them.

ATLANTASTARTER

First Light on Clara Meer

≈ 2,500 steps1.2 mi · about 2 hoursStarter · 3 stops · 500 credStart where you live.

Three stops around the south and west edges of Piedmont Park, best at sunrise when the Midtown towers catch light across the lake. Flat, about a mile and a quarter, free the whole way.

ATLANTASTARTER

The King's Block

≈ 1,200 steps0.6 mi · about 2 hoursStarter · 3 stops · 500 credStart where you live.

The crypt, the plaza and the market, in one slow morning on and around Auburn Avenue. Under a mile of flat sidewalk, free at every stop, and best early before the block fills with school groups.

ATLANTASTANDARD

Auburn Avenue, End to End

≈ 1,800 steps0.9 mi · about 4 hoursStandard · 5 stops · 600 credOne trip earns it.

Five stops walking east along the street Black Atlanta built, from the research library at the downtown end to the house where Martin Luther King Jr. was born. A mile of sidewalk and most of an afternoon, free outdoors at every stop.

ATLANTASTANDARD

Eastside Trail and the Tunnel

≈ 7,000 steps3.3 mi · about 4.5 hoursStandard · 5 stops · 600 credOne trip earns it.

Five stops walking the old rail corridor south from Ponce City Market, through a park built around a stormwater pond, past a presidential library's free gardens and down into the painted tunnel at Krog Street. About three miles, half a day.

ATLANTASTANDARD

Oakland to the Southside

≈ 6,000 steps + 1.9 mi by car2.9 mi on foot · about 5 hoursStandard · 5 stops · 600 credOne trip earns it.

Five stops running south from the city's oldest cemetery to the stadium that held the 1996 Games. The first three make a walk; the last two sit far enough apart that you will want a bike or a short ride. Half a day, one paid gate.

ATLANTASTANDARD

Olmsted's Last Commission

≈ 8,500 steps4.1 mi · about 4.5 hoursStandard · 5 stops · 600 credOne trip earns it.

Five stops running east along Ponce de Leon through the Druid Hills parks Frederick Law Olmsted laid out in the 1890s, the trees getting older and wilder at every stop. Four are free. The old-growth forest at the fourth is behind museum admission, so buy that ticket before you set out. Half a day.

ATLANTAADVANCED

Granite and River

≈ 3,500 steps + 146 mi by car1.7 mi on foot · 2 days or more · + the walk in to 3 stopsAdvanced III · 11 stops · 800 credGetting there is not the hard part.

Eleven stops on the ring of granite mountains and burned mill ruins outside the city, from the top of Stone Mountain to the paper mill walls on Sope Creek. Two full days and a car. Six of the eleven charge a gate or parking fee, Panola's summit is reached only on a ranger-led hike you have to book by phone, and bare granite in July is punishing, so go in spring or autumn.

ATLANTAADVANCED

Quarry to the Gulch

≈ 9,500 steps + 7.2 mi by car4.6 mi on foot · a full dayAdvanced · 7 stops · 800 credGetting there is not the hard part.

Seven stops across the Westside, starting at the reservoir sunk in the old Bellwood quarry and ending on a footbridge over the rail gulch downtown. A full day, and you will want a car or transit between the first four.

ATLANTAADVANCED

The Outer Ring Road

34 mi by car1 day or moreAdvanced II · 9 stops · 800 credGetting there is not the hard part.

Nine stops in a clockwise arc around the city, from a garden gate in Midtown up through Buckhead and Brookhaven, back down through Decatur and Kirkwood, and out to a wetland where people build folk art from dolls' heads. Two days and a car. One of the nine charges admission.