7 Most Scenic Small Towns In Georgia For Nature Lovers

North Georgia's mountain towns are easy to reach. They are harder to leave. Some run on gold-rush history. Others are built around state parks. Dahlonega still marks its 1828 gold strike with a Gold Rush Days Festival each fall. Blue Ridge runs an excursion train through the Toccoa River corridor. Hiawassee hosts the Georgia Mountain Fair every summer at a fairground on Lake Chatuge. The seven below each earn a long weekend on their own.

Blue Ridge

Blue Ridge sits in Fannin County in the southwestern Blue Ridge Mountains, with the Toccoa River running through town and Lake Blue Ridge (a 3,290-acre TVA reservoir) at the southern edge. The river handles tubing, kayak rentals, and stand-up paddleboarding from several outfitters along Highway 5, and the lake holds smallmouth bass and walleye for anglers running boats out of Morganton Point.

Fannin County markets itself as the Trout Capital of Georgia, and the wild trout fishing on Noontootla Creek (privately managed for catch-and-release) and Jacks River in the Cohutta Wilderness backs up the claim. The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway runs daily four-hour round-trip excursions on a restored line from downtown to McCaysville on the Tennessee border, following the Toccoa River for most of the route. For a short hike with a payoff, Fall Branch Falls drops in two tiers about 50 feet through a hemlock-shaded gorge, with the trailhead a 25-minute drive northeast of town.

Clayton

Clayton is the seat of Rabun County in the northeastern corner of Georgia, with Tallulah Gorge State Park 12 miles south. The gorge runs about two miles long and nearly 1,000 feet deep, with a suspension bridge 80 feet above the river and a permit lottery for hikers wanting to descend to the gorge floor. Black Rock Mountain State Park, eight miles north of town, sits at the highest elevation of any state park in Georgia (3,640 feet) and runs an overlook with views into North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Lake Burton holds 2,775 acres of clear mountain water immediately west of town, with the headwaters of the Tallulah River feeding it. The Bartram Trail, named for the 18th-century botanist William Bartram, passes through Warwoman Dell east of Clayton; the dell holds Becky Branch Falls, a 20-foot cascade reached by a short walk from the parking area off Warwoman Road. The Bartram continues 37 miles north into North Carolina from there.

Dahlonega

Dahlonega was the site of the first major American gold rush after Benjamin Parks struck pay dirt in 1828. The Dahlonega Gold Museum, housed in the 1836 county courthouse on the public square, holds gold coins minted at the Dahlonega Mint between 1838 and 1861 and gold-bearing samples from the local mines. DeSoto Falls Recreation Area in the Chattahoochee National Forest sits 18 miles north of town, with three named waterfalls along Frogtown Creek reached by a 2-mile loop trail.

The Lumpkin County hills around Dahlonega hold around two dozen working vineyards, the densest concentration in Georgia, anchored by Three Sisters Vineyards (the first farm winery in the county, since 1996) and Frogtown Cellars. The Etowah and Chestatee Rivers run through the surrounding hills with Class I and II paddling for most of the year. Gold Rush Days Festival fills the public square the third weekend of October with juried artisans, gold-panning demonstrations, a parade, and live mountain music.

Blairsville

Blairsville is the seat of Union County, surrounded by Chattahoochee National Forest land in every direction. Vogel State Park, 11 miles south of town at the foot of Blood Mountain, opened in 1931 as the second-oldest state park in Georgia and runs the 22-acre Lake Trahlyta, hiking trails to Trahlyta Falls and Bear Hair Gap, and the annual Mountain Music Day each September with traditional Appalachian fiddle and banjo playing in the picnic area.

Lake Nottely covers 4,180 acres on the western side of town, with a Fourth of July boat parade that draws decorated craft from the surrounding cottages each summer. The Appalachian Trail crosses Blood Mountain (4,458 feet, the highest point of the AT in Georgia) eight miles south of town, with the climb from Neel Gap finishing at the stone shelter built by the CCC in the 1930s. Around Labor Day weekend, the Mountain Heritage Festival fills the Union County Courthouse lawn with crafts, bluegrass, and a Saturday parade through the square.

Hiawassee

Hiawassee sits on the southern shore of Lake Chatuge, a 7,050-acre TVA reservoir that straddles the Georgia-North Carolina border. Bell Mountain, on the north side of town, has a paved access road climbing to a summit at 3,420 feet with views over the lake and the surrounding ridges. The summit boulders are covered in painted graffiti, an unusual local tradition that started informally in the 1980s and has since become part of the attraction.

Hamilton Gardens at Lake Chatuge runs about 17 acres of native rhododendron and azalea collections that bloom April through June, with marked trails along the shoreline. The Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds, which sits on the lakeshore at the western edge of town, hosts the Georgia Mountain Fair each July (running since 1950) and the Georgia Mountain Fall Festival in October, both with juried crafts, traditional music, and a working pioneer village.

Ellijay

Ellijay is the seat of Gilmer County and the apple capital of Georgia, with around a dozen working orchards in the hills surrounding town. The harvest runs from late August through November, and Hillcrest Orchards and Aaron Family Orchards both run pick-your-own operations. Carters Lake covers 3,220 acres on the southwestern side of the county, a Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Coosawattee River with the deepest water of any lake in Georgia at 450 feet at the dam.

Amicalola Falls State Park, 18 miles southeast of town, runs the 729-foot Amicalola Falls (the tallest cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi River) and the Approach Trail to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain. Cartecay Vineyards and Ellijay River Vineyards both hold tasting rooms within ten minutes of downtown. The Georgia Apple Festival runs the second and third weekends of October at the Ellijay Lions Club Fairgrounds with cider, fried apple pies, juried crafts, and a parade through the historic square.

Trenton

Trenton sits at the foot of Lookout Mountain in Dade County, the northwesternmost county in Georgia. Cloudland Canyon State Park, eight miles east of town near Rising Fawn, runs along the western rim of Lookout Mountain with overlooks 1,000 feet above the canyon floor. Sitton's Gulch Trail descends from the main rim to the bottom of the canyon (about 600 feet of vertical), passing Cherokee Falls and Hemlock Falls before continuing along Daniel Creek toward the canyon mouth.

Howard Waterfall Cave Preserve, on the southern flank of Lookout Mountain, holds a horizontal cave system with Cherokee syllabary inscriptions on its walls; access requires a permit from the Southeastern Cave Conservancy. Wilderness Outdoor Movie Theater, the largest outdoor drive-in screen in Georgia at 60 feet wide, sits at the southern edge of the county and runs first-run films from Friday through Sunday in season, with viewing from cars or pickup beds in the gravel lot.

The Trailhead Is the Welcome Mat

The seven towns above run on a year-round calendar of waterfalls, lake afternoons, mountain trails, and small-town festivals tied to the gold rush, the apple harvest, and the long ridges of the southern Appalachians. The interstate gets you in. The two-lane road past the orchards and the trout streams gets you to the rest.