diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/raft/KafkaMetadataLog.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/raft/KafkaMetadataLog.scala
index 23c8f2450fb07..629653101b814 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/raft/KafkaMetadataLog.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/raft/KafkaMetadataLog.scala
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ import org.apache.kafka.common.record.{ControlRecordUtils, MemoryRecords, Record
 import org.apache.kafka.common.utils.{BufferSupplier, Time}
 import org.apache.kafka.common.{KafkaException, TopicPartition, Uuid}
 import org.apache.kafka.raft.{Isolation, KafkaRaftClient, LogAppendInfo, LogFetchInfo, LogOffsetMetadata, OffsetAndEpoch, OffsetMetadata, ReplicatedLog, ValidOffsetAndEpoch}
-import org.apache.kafka.snapshot.{FileRawSnapshotReader, FileRawSnapshotWriter, RawSnapshotReader, RawSnapshotWriter, SnapshotPath, Snapshots}
+import org.apache.kafka.snapshot.{FileRawSnapshotReader, FileRawSnapshotWriter, RawSnapshotReader, RawSnapshotWriter, Snapshots}
 
 import java.io.File
 import java.nio.file.{Files, NoSuchFileException, Path}
@@ -604,17 +604,11 @@ object KafkaMetadataLog {
     val snapshots = mutable.TreeMap.empty[OffsetAndEpoch, Option[FileRawSnapshotReader]]
     // Scan the log directory; deleting partial snapshots and older snapshot, only remembering immutable snapshots start
     // from logStartOffset
-    Files
-      .walk(log.dir.toPath, 1)
-      .map[Optional[SnapshotPath]] { path =>
-        if (path != log.dir.toPath) {
-          Snapshots.parse(path)
-        } else {
-          Optional.empty()
-        }
-      }
-      .forEach { path =>
-        path.ifPresent { snapshotPath =>
+    val filesInDir = Files.newDirectoryStream(log.dir.toPath)
+
+    try {
+      filesInDir.forEach { path =>
+        Snapshots.parse(path).ifPresent { snapshotPath =>
           if (snapshotPath.partial ||
             snapshotPath.deleted ||
             snapshotPath.snapshotId.offset < log.logStartOffset) {
@@ -625,6 +619,10 @@ object KafkaMetadataLog {
           }
         }
       }
+    } finally {
+      filesInDir.close()
+    }
+
     snapshots
   }