Paint Branch Trail
4620 Cherry Hill Rd
College Park, MD 20740
Paint Branch trail runs from the Cherry Hill neighborhood in College Park, all the way to Lake Artemesia (3.5 miles) and connects to several other trails, including Indian Creek Trail (where the Indian Creek tee-pee playground is located!) This is a GREAT spot to explore and we really just barely scratched the surface this trip.
There are several places to enter this trail, but we parked at Cherry Hill Road Community Park. The park is located right next to the Home Depot and Shoppers on Cherry Hill Rd. This place would be especially convenient if you need to head to Ikea for anything and want to make an outing of it – you can see the Ikea sign from the trailhead! There is a small parking lot and the trailhead is just to the left of the tennis courts (marked with a brown post).
This portion of Paint Branch trail runs right along the Little Paint Branch river. The entire trail is paved and well maintained and the river is a great spot for little ones to wade and splash around. We did not walk very far this time, only about a mile round trip. The girls just wanted to play in the river – and they did, for over 2 hours! We had SO much fun here and will definitely add this into our regular rotation.
One important note – to get to the spot we visited – you have to cross a fairly busy section of Cherry Hill Rd. The road is only 2 lanes but I would not have been comfortable with all 3 girls by myself. If you have 2 kids – bring a double stroller and you’ll be fine! If you have more than that and your kids are little- bring help for this one. If you don’t want to cross the road and your main goal is to wade in the river, there are plenty of spots to access the water at the very beginning of the trail. The river is not quite as wide here but it was still shallow AND more shaded so might be better for the hot summer months!
🚽 Bathrooms 🚽: No! Bring a travel potty – ours is linked in my amazon store – link in bio!
👩👧👦Solo w/ kids?👩👧👦: ONLY if kids are in stroller or old enough to cross the busy road – I couldn’t with my 3.
🛒 Stroller friendly?🛒: yes – awesome place for a stroller walk!
🦠Covid-safe🦠: not busy at all on a beautiful Saturday
🅿️Parking🅿️: small lot, about ten spaces
🧺 Picnic tables: yes, to the right in between the tennis courts
⏰Timing⏰: 2+ hours
Maryland Kid Adventures 