Enjoy it while visiting Sandy Springs in Georgia
The John Ripley Forbes Big Trees Forest Preserve is a serene 30-acre urban sanctuary tucked into the northern edge of Sandy Springs, Georgia, offering a quiet escape within one of metro Atlanta’s busiest suburbs. Established through a partnership between Fulton County, the State of Georgia, and the City of Sandy Springs, the preserve protects a mature hardwood and softwood forest that shelters some of the oldest and largest trees remaining in the Chattahoochee River corridor. Named for John Ripley Forbes, a pioneering naturalist and conservationist who founded numerous nature centers across the southeastern United States, the preserve functions as both a public greenspace and an outdoor classroom dedicated to environmental education and forest conservation.
The land that became Big Trees Forest Preserve was assembled over multiple decades as suburban development transformed the Sandy Springs area from rural farmland into a dense commercial and residential hub. John Ripley Forbes recognized the ecological value of this remaining old-growth fragment and worked with local officials and conservation groups to secure its protection, ensuring that future generations could experience a native Piedmont forest in its natural state. The preserve was officially dedicated as a Fulton County Tree, Plant and Wildlife Sanctuary, a designation that reflects its dual mission of land preservation and public nature education. Today the forest stands as a living monument to Forbes’ vision that every community deserves access to undisturbed natural spaces where people can learn about and connect with the natural world.
Hiking the trail system is the primary activity at Big Trees Forest Preserve, with well-marked paths that wind through rolling terrain beneath a full canopy of oak, hickory, beech, and tulip poplar trees that have stood for more than a century. The Big Trees Loop, a gentle half-mile circuit near the entrance, offers an accessible introduction to the forest for families with young children, casual walkers, and visitors with limited time who still want a peaceful woodland experience. More adventurous hikers can tackle the Backcountry Trail, a longer route that traverses the preserve’s full 30 acres through deeper forest sections featuring small rock outcrops, natural springs, seasonal streams, and hillside vistas that reveal the subtle beauty of the Georgia Piedmont landscape.
Wildlife and plant observation rewards patient visitors who slow down and look closely at the forest floor, mid-story, and canopy layers of the preserve. The understory comes alive each spring with native azaleas blooming in shades of pink and orange, while flowering dogwoods and sourwoods add layers of white blossoms against the emerging green foliage. Blueberry bushes and sparkleberry shrubs produce edible fruit that attracts resident and migratory bird species throughout the summer months, while seasonal wildflowers including trilliums, bloodroot, and mayapples carpet the forest floor in early spring before the canopy leafs out fully. Birdwatchers can spot pileated woodpeckers, eastern bluebirds, great horned owls, and dozens of warbler species that migrate through the preserve each spring and fall along the Chattahoochee River flyway corridor.
The preserve’s role as an outdoor classroom sets it apart from typical municipal parks, with interpretive trail markers and self-guided nature walk brochures available at the entrance kiosk that lead visitors through a 15-stop educational circuit covering tree identification, forest ecology, watershed function, and wildlife habitat. School groups, scout troops, and homeschool families regularly use the preserve for hands-on science and nature study, with the diverse forest ecosystem providing living examples of ecological concepts from decomposition and nutrient cycling to plant succession and animal adaptation. The Big Trees Forest Preserve organization offers periodic guided nature walks, volunteer workdays for invasive species removal and trail maintenance, and seasonal programs that connect the local community with this pocket of old-growth forest hidden in plain sight among the office parks and residential neighborhoods of Sandy Springs.
The preserve is open year-round from sunrise to sunset with no admission fee, making it an accessible daily destination for residents and visitors seeking a quiet forest walk without leaving the city. Spring and fall provide the most comfortable hiking conditions, with mild temperatures in the 50s and 60s, peak wildflower displays from March through May, and brilliant autumn foliage coloring the hardwood canopy in October and November. Summer mornings offer cool shade beneath the dense canopy before Georgia’s afternoon heat and humidity settle in, while the preserve’s streams and springs maintain a refreshing microclimate even during the warmest months. Winter reveals the forest’s architecture as bare branches expose the full stature of the preserve’s signature old-growth trees and the subtle contours of the rocky terrain, rewarding visitors with moments of solitude rarely found within the metro Atlanta sprawl.