Brasstown Bald & Off-Roading (Sort of)

A few years ago when we were in Hiawassee visiting my parents, Mom took me and the boys on a little driving adventure. We rode in my Dad's Geo Tracker (Butterbean) with the roof off, and went down a dirt road I didn't know the name of, but my Dad called the area "Corbin Creek" from his childhood.
Now apparently known as "Swallow's Creek WMA".

We rode through a creek, and up and around and down dirt and rocky roads.
When we emerged on the highway again, we were down near Helen, Georgia, and stopped at a roadside stand for a cup of hot boiled peanuts.    

The memory of that little impromptu adventure has stuck with Ryan all this time, and when I told him about going to ride the Blue Ridge train and going on to Hiawassee, he mentioned that he'd like to take his SUV on that road that Nanny had taken us on, and maybe going to visit in Helen since it's been quite a few years since we've visited there, too.  

Since we were going right by there, I wanted to go up Brasstown Bald mountain and see the Fall Foliage from up top.

(It's been awhile since we've been up Brasstown Bald, too. Last time we went we didn't have to pay anything to get in. Now it's $5.00 per person.)            

                                                                   

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so great this morning and there were a lot of clouds and wind up top.      

We spent some time hanging around in the museum, waiting to see if the clouds were going to blow on over, but eventually we gave it up and headed on back out.

We did walk the .6 mile trail back down, rather than taking the shuttle we'd take up. It was a nice, leisurely walk. The wind wasn't blowing so crazy and it wasn't as cold as up top.

Here we are crossing Corbin Creek on Indian Grave Gap Road.

There was a Waterfall off this road about a half - or a mile hike Ryan had found out about online. I was scared to do much hiking out in the woods on account of it being hunting season, but once we got to the place to get to the Falls, there were already like 8 vehicles parked there and no where for us to park anyway.

We rode, and stopped off at a few pull-off/campsite areas, checking out the scenery and taking "Off-roading" pictures and other interesting things. You know, like a Red Couch in the forest.

We went on up the mountain and turned onto Tray Mountain Road, which is apparently a bit less used than Indian Grave Gap Road. It was practically washed away and was more rock (and sometimes boulders) than dirt road.

 We came across a few minor waterfalls. These were some pretty awesome ones, but I could really only photograph the top few levels of it because the rest of it dropped way down, with no way of getting down there (safely). I had already slipped and fell on my can climbing down to get to these.

Three or so hours later, we finally found our way out, in a different place than Mom had taken us, but still near the City of Helen.

Helen is one of the most unique towns I know of, the entire town is a Tourist attraction, a re-creation of an Alpine Village. It's been like this since for as long as I can remember, when Granny and Papa used to take me there as a kid, and we used to take our kids when they were little.

Before it got so renowned and popular. Now you can't hardly get in the place in the Summer, and for-get Oktoberfest, it ain't happening.

We made our way on through town, and maybe will go back and check out the Christmas decorations next month.

Outside of town we stopped at Nora Mill, a still-working grist mill since 1876.

Water from the Chattahoochee River turns the stone-grinder, making meal, flour, grits, etc.

They've changed things somewhat since we were here last...which I had no idea was as long ago as it was.
This deck/overlook wasn't there then, and you could stand on the bank of the River, even get in and wade around.
I have a picture of Ryan at 2-years-old standing in front/beside of these same falls, about 21 years ago.

Then we went home. I love little weekend adventures.

Blue Ridge Fall Foliage

 This weekend we went up to Blue Ridge, Georgia  to ride the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway's Fall Foliage train.

The weather was pretty much perfect Fall weather: clear, blue sky, bright and sunny, a bit of a chill in the air but not too cold. Just plain gorgeous.

The train ride was nice. There were pretty and interesting sites to see in the back country, and we bought Apple Cider Slushies and fried apple pies from the concession car. We'd never had Apple Cider Slushie before, it was yummy.

The train ride was about an hour trip up to the twin cities of McCaysville, Georgia, and Copper Hill, Tennessee.  The State Line literally runs right through the town, through the IGA grocery store, and a restaurant, and other buildings/businesses/etc.

It was pretty funny that it happens to be Polk County, Tennessee right there. Polk is the county we live in Georgia, and my sister lives in in Florida, haaaaa. What are the chances?
Ryan was wearing a Polk County Fire Dept. cap and a lady on the train thought it was Tennessee, and he was thinking Georgia, of course, so it was a funny conversation for a minute there.

We spent about an hour and a half in McCaysville/Copper Hill, walking around town, checking out the sites, looking around in some of the stores.

Everyone got a kick out of the McCaysville Drug & Gun shop.

We bought some fudge, chocolate covered pretzels, got my Smashed Penny souvenir, and ate at Georgia Boy BBQ (which, sorry, I wouldn't recommend).

After arriving back in Blue Ridge, we headed for Hiawassee, Georgia, to spend the night at my/parents house.