The first time we visited Georgia we had planned to visit Helen. We wanted to visit the Alpine town in the Appalachian Mountains. For me, it was more personal than visiting a unique and kitschy place. I had developed a close friendship with a woman from Germany. She goes back frequently, likes Bavaria, and even bought me a Victorinox Swiss army knife from Bavaria, I carry it with me every day.
We didn’t make it that first time but made it a priority for our second jaunt into North Georgia. We planned to camp in the Chattahoochee National Forest just outside of Helen. As usual, we arrived as it was getting dark. When we arrived at the trailhead we had planned to camp at, all we saw was a parking lot. It was too dark to try and explore so we drove into Helen.
My first impression when we pulled into town was that it was a magical place created by mountain fairies.
It was about 7pm, rainy and there was no one around. We wanted to park so that we could walk around while we decided what to do for accommodations, but every parking lot cost $10. We pulled into a gas station to think. While there, a man pulled up in a truck and told us how much he loved our overland rig. He offered us a place to stay for the night on his property. He seemed nice enough, but since we were new to the area and it was nighttime, we decided it wasn’t smart to take him up on his generous offer.
There was a Walmart about 14 miles away. I decided to look up hotel prices in the area since we had seen many Vacancy signs in town. I found one for 25% of the price we paid for the hotel in Florida. It also had the perk of continental breakfast and free parking until midnight on the day of checkout. We drove over and checked in. The room was at least four times better than our Florida room at 1/4 of the cost. Of course, it was off-season in Georgia while in season in Florida.
If the weather had been warmer and not rainy, we could have enjoyed the sandy riverfront the hotel had on the Chattahoochee River. There was a waterpark slide on the other side which seemed ghostly in the trees.
After settling in we went out to explore. We only saw a few people walking around which made it feel like we had the town to ourselves. In one area with a small outdoor theater, there was jazz music being piped in. We even got to see Bigfoot.
The next day we checked out some shops and had vegan brats along the river before heading back into the forest.
Before I started writing this post we had thought Helen was a town started by German immigrants. Thankfully I did some research before I stated that here. Instead, Helen was a logging town established in 1913. In 1969 it was decided to model this declining town into a Bavarian town and It was mandated in the zoning code that all businesses use south-German design, including national franchises.
WanderLyd 