For years the Chattahoochee edge of Sandy Springs worked as three separate things. There was Morgan Falls Overlook Park, which you drove to. There was a paddle shack at the dock, which you booked. And there were the neighborhoods off Roswell Road, which you walked around inside but rarely walked out of. In the space of five months in 2026, those three pieces have been quietly stitched into one continuous use.
What Actually Changed on May 2
The city opened the first 1.88-mile segment of the Springway Trail on May 2, 2026, running from Roswell Road to Morgan Falls Overlook Park along the Chattahoochee River. That is the entire sentence, and it is worth reading twice, because it changes what "going to the river" means for anyone who lives inside walking or biking distance of Roswell Road.
The new segment is officially called the Springway Trail – Morgan Falls Connector, and it plugs the park into the broader Sandy Springs trail network for the first time. For a resident on the west side, a trip to the overlook is no longer a car errand with a parking question at the end. It is a walk, a run, or a slow bike ride with a destination that happens to include a paddle dock.
First 1.88 miles. Roswell Road to Morgan Falls Overlook Park. Opened May 2, 2026.
That is the entire piece of infrastructure that reframes the summer.
The Paddle Shack Under New Management
If you have not been to the water in a season or two, the sign at the dock is different. Murph's Surf River Adventures took over the Paddle Shack at Morgan Falls Overlook Park at 200 Morgan Falls Road under a five-year city contract awarded in March 2024, after the previous operator, High Country, decided to focus on retail sales. The city gets $20,100 per year in rent plus 10% of gross revenues.
Murph's is a locally owned operation that started as a garage hobby with one kayak and one paddleboard in 2015 and now runs paddle shacks across Georgia and into Florida. In Sandy Springs, the Morgan Falls location is open seven days a week when weather permits, which is a longer weekly window than any of their Lake Allatoona sites.
A few practical things worth knowing before you drive over:
- Rentals cover kayaks, canoes, and stand-up paddleboards, at all experience levels.
- SUP yoga classes run on weekends.
- Private board and kayak storage is available 365 days a year, which quietly matters for anyone within a Springway walk of the park.
- Equipment stays on site. Murph's no longer allows off-site pickup or shared equipment between renters, a policy change driven by liability.
- Weather closures happen. Check the booking calendar rather than assuming the shack is open.
The last two points are the ones locals miss. If you have a friend visiting and picture strapping a rental board to the roof of the car, that is not a service Murph's offers anymore. The trip is the trip.
August 15, Marked on the Calendar
The clearest signal that the river corridor is being treated as a proper civic asset, not a scenic overlook, is the inaugural Sandy Springs SUP Showdown on Saturday, August 15, 2026. The city, Murph's Surf, and Sandy Springs Recreation and Parks are running a 6-mile out-and-back paddle race that launches from the Paddle Shack, crosses Bull Sluice Lake, and turns at a set of red buoys before returning to the dock.
Everything a resident needs to know sits in a small block of logistics:
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, August 15, 2026 |
| Window | 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM |
| Course | 6-mile out-and-back, Bull Sluice Lake and the Chattahoochee |
| Start | Floating staggered start perpendicular to the dock at Murph's Surf Paddle Shack |
| Entry | $75, registration required |
| Board drop-off | Friday, August 14, 4 to 7 PM, overnight security provided |
| Race-day parking | Off-site with complimentary shuttle; adaptive athletes park at the Overlook |
| Safety | Swift Water Rescue at the red-buoy turnaround, buoy-marked course |
| Adaptive division | Kayak athletes supported by Catalyst Sports |
Two things are worth calling out beyond the table. One is the lineage. The race is described as first-year, but it is not first-idea; it was started by High Country Outfitters years ago and has now been picked up by Murph's and the city as a permanent civic fixture. That is a meaningful signal. Sandy Springs is treating paddle sports the way it already treats its concert series at the Heritage Amphitheatre, as a resident-facing annual tradition rather than a one-off.
The other is the weather note in the official race documents. "August in Georgia can be extremely hot and humid," is not a throwaway line. It is the reason the race starts at 7 AM, the reason the shuttle exists, and the reason spectators who want to see the finish should plan on being on the bank before 10.
A Resident's Saturday, Assembled Differently Now
Consider what a summer Saturday off Roswell Road looks like this year that did not exist last year.
You leave the house on foot or on a bike. You pick up the new Springway Trail segment and follow it for 1.88 miles to Morgan Falls Overlook Park. You do not think about parking, because you are not driving. At the park you either walk out to the overlook for the view of the dam, or you keep going to the Paddle Shack, where a board you have stored year-round is already waiting, or where a rental gets you on Bull Sluice Lake within twenty minutes of arriving. When you are done, you reverse the trip on the Springway back to your street.
Nothing about that sequence was possible in this configuration in summer 2025. The park existed. The paddle shack existed under a different operator. The neighborhoods existed. But the connective tissue between them was a road called Roswell, which is not something a resident chooses for a Saturday morning. That is the change.
For the weekend of August 14 and 15, the same walk becomes a spectator route. You can drop your board Friday between 4 and 7, walk home, and come back on foot Saturday morning for the 7 AM start without ever moving your car. Adaptive athletes get direct parking at the Overlook, and everyone else gets the shuttle, which means the residential streets around the park do not get overrun.
What This Adds Up To
None of these three developments would matter much on its own. A 1.88-mile trail segment is a nice-to-have. A new race is a nice-to-have. A new paddle operator is a nice-to-have. Together they change the answer to a different question, which is whether the west side of Sandy Springs treats the Chattahoochee as scenery or as an amenity that gets used.
The 2026 answer is the second one, and the residents who benefit most are the ones who live within a Springway walk of the park. That is a specific and small group today. The city has been open that the 1.88 miles is a first segment, not a completed system, so the walking radius will keep expanding as future segments come online.
A last practical thought for the current summer. The Paddle Shack is open seven days a week weather permitting, weekday evenings included. The Springway is quieter on a Tuesday at 6 PM than it is on a Saturday at 9 AM, and Murph's typically has boards available on short notice on weeknights. If you have never used the river side of your own neighborhood, that is the trip to make first, before the August 15 crowd shows you what it looks like at full volume.
The connected version of Sandy Springs is here. Most residents have not walked it yet.
If you're weighing a move within Sandy Springs, or thinking about how the growing Chattahoochee trail network changes which streets you want to live on, Brennan Ballard is glad to talk through the block-by-block picture and what it means for your next home. Let's Connect.
