Villa Rica's Newest Trails Close at Dusk, and Dusk Is About to Come Early

Carroll County Board of Commissioners Chair Michelle Morgan already walks the county's parks with her dog, Apollo, according to the Times-Georgian's report on the opening of Moss Ferry Park. On Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, she spoke as local officials opened a new one off Moss Ferry Road in Villa Rica. She described herself as "more so a hiker in the parks."

The park has been open for about a month. On Sunday its hours effectively change, even though the posted rule stays the same. Moss Ferry Park is open from dawn until dusk, and daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1. For its first late fall and winter, this is a park for Saturday mornings and early starts, and it gets harder to reach after the workday.

Nearly 100 Acres That Were Once Zoned for Houses

The land at 660 Moss Ferry Road came to the county as a gift. Jeff and Brenda Matthews and their family donated it to Carroll County hoping it would become a place the community could use for generations, The City Menus reported. Early plans focused on nature trails for people in the Sandhill and Fairfield communities.

District 2 Commissioner Clint Chance told the Times-Georgian it had been zoned as a planned unit development that could have held more than 300 houses. Now it is just under 100 acres of woods and creeks with roughly five miles of walking trails.

Several people carried the project over the years. Chance credited former commissioner Vickie Anderson and former Chairman Marty Smith for backing it, former Parks Director Ben Skipper for getting it started, and current Parks Director Kent Johnston and his staff for finishing it. Georgia and West, Inc. worked with county staff to plan and build the trail system. The county release also acknowledged that the park "took longer to complete than originally anticipated."

That delay put the opening in late September, about five weeks before the clocks change.

What Five Miles Looks Like Past the Pavilion

The entrance area has a parking lot and a pavilion, both built with help from the county's public works department. From there the trails branch into routes from about half a mile to more than three miles. That range matters more than the five-mile total. A half-mile loop fits into a short daylight window. A three-mile route takes a good part of an hour at a walking pace, and you have to finish it before the gate's dusk rule kicks in.

The trails are color coded. For now, temporary maps stand at the intersections, and the county plans to replace them with permanent maps soon. Your first few visits will mean choosing your way at the posted junction maps, so it helps to start with enough daylight to backtrack.

The only trail named in the opening coverage is Sandy Creek Trail, and it got the strongest praise. "There are several creeks out there, and there are long leaf magnolias," Johnston told the Times-Georgian. "I've never seen quite so many growing in one spot as I've seen at the end of the Sandy Creek Trail." On the same tour he pointed out ferns throughout the undergrowth and native azaleas that bloom in spring. Morgan described what lies beyond the parking lot. "There's a lot of nature back there," she said. She singled out the tree canopy and added, "you just don't know until you get back there."

A walk to the end of a creek trail under a closed canopy is exactly the kind of walk that gets dark first. Under thick tree cover, the light on the trail fades before the sky over the parking lot does.

Sunday's Clock Change Shortens the Day at Moss Ferry

The park is open to the public from dawn until dusk, and this week dusk moves an hour earlier on the clock. Daylight saving time ends Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, at 2 a.m., and from that afternoon on, evening light runs out an hour earlier by the clock than it did the day before.

Here is what timeanddate.com's November table for Villa Rica shows for sunset over the first two weeks:

Sunset slips another 11 minutes across those two weeks, on top of the hour the clock change takes away. If you leave work at 5 p.m., a weekday trip to Moss Ferry in mid-November gives you about half an hour of sunlight once you've parked. That covers the half-mile loop with time to spare. A three-mile route doesn't fit.

The same clock change helps at the other end of the day. Morning light comes an hour earlier by the clock than it did the week before, so the dawn opening comes earlier too. That makes a weekday visit before work more realistic than an after-work one for the rest of the season.

Here's how that sorts out for the trails:

1. Weekday evenings: Use the shortest color-coded loop, and start soon after you arrive.
2. Weekday mornings: Plan a mid-length route that still gets you to work on time, since dawn now arrives earlier by the clock.
3. Weekends: Do Sandy Creek Trail and the longer routes, ideally starting by early afternoon so you're done well before sunset.

Before You Go

The rules are posted at the entrance, and the Times-Georgian summarized the main ones:

• Dogs: Pets are welcome on a leash no longer than six feet and must stay with their owner at all times.
• No overnight camping.
• No motorized vehicles on the trails.
• Leave it as you found it: Wildlife, plant life, artifacts and other natural or man-made features are protected and may not be disturbed or removed.

That last rule matters most in a park known for its longleaf magnolias and native azaleas. Johnston has described protecting native plant and animal species as part of the parks department's mission.

The park has two ways in. Besides the public entrance on Moss Ferry Road, it has an entrance connected to the Fairfield Plantation community. "I love the idea of having it connected to Fairfield," Chance told the Times-Georgian. "Obviously, everyone is welcome here, but having something that Fairfield has connectivity to is very important." At the opening, county leaders thanked Alison Kennedy, general manager of the Fairfield Plantation Property Owners Association, for the partnership between the county and the community. If you live outside Fairfield, the Moss Ferry Road entrance with its parking lot and pavilion is the clear place to start.

Villa Rica's Own Park Is Next, on Anderson Road

Moss Ferry is a county park built around trails through the woods. The City of Villa Rica is building a different kind of park closer to town. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, family, friends and city officials gathered at 209 Anderson Road to break ground on Shirley Marchman Park, the Times-Georgian reported.

Villa Rica Parks and Recreation Director Tracie Ivey said the city has more than 500 acres of park land, some of it undeveloped, including four very active parks. Shirley Marchman Park will be the first neighborhood park the city has built from the ground up. Plans include a basketball court, a walking trail, a pavilion and, in Ivey's words, "all the amenities." The park is named for Shirley McCain Marchman, whom the Times-Georgian identifies as Villa Rica's first African American woman to serve on the city council. She dug in at the ceremony with a personalized shovel painted purple and gold.

Don't count on it for this winter. The June 2026 City Manager Update listed a $968,000 project budget and estimated construction at about six months. That estimate came before the groundbreaking, while final plans and funding sources were still being worked out. For now, the site is mostly red dirt, gravel and construction equipment, as Ivey put it. Until it opens, Moss Ferry Road is where the new trails are. Starting Sunday, plan on finishing your walk by about 5:45 p.m.

Being able to walk to a creek trail before work matters to a lot of households, and on the north end of Carroll County that option grew a lot this fall. If you're weighing how close you'd like to be to Moss Ferry Park, the Fairfield side, or the parks in town, Kelly Berry | The Home Team is happy to talk through it, whether you're settling in nearby or just curious what's changing around you.