On Atlanta’s Westside, a former granite quarry has become the city’s largest park: Shirley Clarke Franklin Park at Bellwood Quarry, 280 acres of green built around a brilliant blue-green lake cradled in walls of stone.
The park opened in August 2021 as Westside Park, and in February 2025 the city renamed it in honor of former mayor Shirley Clarke Franklin. Its centerpiece is the old Bellwood Quarry, now a 2.4-billion-gallon drinking-water reservoir that deepened the city’s water security while giving residents an unforgettable view: from the Grand Overlook, the quarry lake spreads out below with the Midtown and Downtown skylines rising beyond it.
Come for that panorama, then stay for the park itself. Paved and natural trails wind through lawns and woodland, an open meadow invites picnics and games, and overlooks and gathering spaces make it easy to spend a slow afternoon outdoors. The park is also a connector, tying Westside neighborhoods to the Atlanta BeltLine’s growing trail network and to nearby Proctor Creek, with links toward Rodney Cook Sr. Park in Vine City.
It is free, it is vast, and it still feels like a discovery — the rare big-city park where the star attraction is a lake held in a bowl of granite. Bring water, bring a camera, and give yourself time to simply sit above the quarry and take it in.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
