Cooper’s Furnace Trail – Cartersville GA
On Earth Day 2023, we decided hike Cooper’s Furnace Trail.
This park is located in Cartersville, Georgia just off of Highway 41 – A very interesting hiking trail and park close to home! Cooper’s Furnace Day Use Area is maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Cooper’s Furnace might sound like a strange name, but it is because there is an iron furnace on the property. This was left over from the early 1800s town of Etowah, Georgia. Mark Anthony Cooper’s Iron Works was located in this spot on the Etowah River, and the giant furnace is all that is left of the company and town, which was destroyed by William T. Sherman during the Civil War. This is a cool historic site and trail combo for your nerdy historian hikers out there!
When you arrive at Cooper’s Furnace, there is a parking lot, a playground, and a pavilion. The location is on the Etowah River, so if you visit, make sure to go down the stairs and have a look! The gravel trail starts behind a gate. The first half a mile or so of the trail is gravel and follows a pretty creek. The creek had crawfish and fish in it. Eventually you hike to a beaver pond, and this is where the gravel part of the trail ends. As you walk straight, you will come to a sign that says:
Cooper Furnace .5 Mile ← and Cooper Branch .3 Mile →
The Cooper Branch Trail went straight up the hill! We had our two dogs with us, so we decided to do the flatter option which was the Cooper Furnace Trail.
The trail is well defined, but when we came to a fork in the trail, we had no clue which way to go. The trails here are not marked very well. Fortunately, we did pick the right way based on our GPS. If you go on this trail, make sure you take a picture of the map! Even with the map pulled up as I am writing this, I am still not sure exactly how we looped back.
Regardless, we did like this hike. The trail is dog friendly, there was a cave area, a pond, river, and creek, and interpretive signs about the flora and fauna of the trail. We even saw some Mountain Laurel along the trail. There were lots of uphill parts, and there were plenty of switchbacks to make the elevation bearable.
After the Cooper’s Furnace Trail hike, we definitely deserved a beer or two! Just 10 minutes from Cooper’s Furnace, we headed to Drowned Valley Brewing Company.
Tips for your trip:
- Cooper’s Furnace had a lot of hikers with dogs – Make sure to keep your dog on a leash. When we were there, we actually saw two hikers whose dogs escaped from them. Make sure you have a reliable leash to prevent something stressful like losing your dogs in the woods from happening!
- Cooper’s Furnace has mountain bike trails, too, if you are into that sort of thing.
- The area is located next to a dam and depending on when the water is let out and the weather, the river water level can rise quickly. Just be aware of your surroundings!
- Take a picture of the trail map!!!!
- Make sure your mobile phone is charged.
Happy Trails!
Katie and Jesse
