Great Day Trip

Friday Barbie and I took a 170 mile day trip through north Georgia and briefly into southwestern North Carolina. It was a great trip. The purpose was to explore some of the campgrounds in the Hiawassee and Blairsville areas of Georgia and to check out some of the other rv parks that sell sites. We left Dillard and headed south to Clayton to catch Highway 76 and travel west through the mountains towards Hiawassee.

Before reaching Hiawassee we stopped at River Bend Campground. I found them through their website, which is a good one. Interestingly enough, there was an FMCA club having a rally this weekend. It reminded me that our Roamin’ Rigs chapter held the September rally this weekend as well. We hope all of our Roamin’ Rigs had a great rally to begin the new rally season. Wouldn’t you know the rallyers were involved in a beanbag baseball game as we drove through the park. The campground was neat and clean with colorful flowers landscaping the grounds. The campground had neat asphalt roads and large gravel sites, some along a creek and others facing the mountains. I used the picture below from their website. That is why it is out of focus-sorry.

Check out the website if you ever plan on camping in the Hiawassee area and you’ll see pictures and read great reviews from folks who have camped there. After leaving there we turned south on Hwy 17/75 for a few miles and drove through Enchanted Valley RV Park. It is an established ownership park, completely filled with single wide park models with a few rvs. We actually considered buying in this park about 10 years ago. If I remember correctly they were going for $8000-$10,000 then. We left there and continued south on Hwy 17/75 a short distance before turning west on Hwy 180. This road actually leads to Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia. We didn’t stop there this trip but we have been there in the past. It provides great 360 degree views on clear weather days. Before Hwy 180 intersects Hwy 19/129, we stopped at Choestoe Falls RV Park, a park that sells sites and the covenants allow only motorhomes, 5th wheels or travel trailers. No park models may be brought in the park. This park is extremely neat and all original sites have been sold, however there are several sites for sale by owners now. This park is more in a valley with some mountain views depending upon the site location. There are many trees in the park. FYI, I did not take the picture of Choestoe Falls that follows. It appeared on the homeowners association website.

After leaving Choestoe Falls, we turned south on Hwy 19/129 to go to River’s Edge RV Park, another owners park. Once again, only rvs are permitted-no park models. Barbie got out of the car to read the bulletin board to see which sites may be for sale and two different ladies came up and asked her if they could help her. They were really friendly and spoke highly of the park. This park had a small lake in the center. A covered pavilion was right on the lake for gatherings.

The sites around the lake were not that long. The ones around the perimeter were much deeper. Again, this park had several resale sites by owners. Both this park and Choestoe Falls were about 5 miles south of Blairsville, Georgia in Union County. I understand this area is about 90 minutes north of Atlanta. Before traveling up into Blairsville we stopped at Vogel State Park which was only a couple of miles from River’s Edge. Vogel is one nice state park. There is a large lake with rental paddle boats available and lots of tree shaded campsites. Rigs larger than 35 feet would have it rough navigating I believe. We stopped at Vogel essentially so Barbie could use the restroom. I know—too much info right? After leaving Vogel we headed north on Hwy 19/129 into Blairsville then turned west on to Old Bald Mountain Road and about 2 miles west of town visited Mountain View RV Resort. This ownership park is really pretty new as only about 5 sites have rvs or a park model on them. This may be nice some day as all sites will be concrete as are all roads and they are building a huge clubhouse, pool and rec areas. There are no trees though and the mountains are a long view away. By this time we went back into Blairsville and stopped at McDonalds for lunch.

After lunch we headed for our last stop, Arrowhead RV Resort, which was north of Blairsville off of Highway 19/129 on the way to Murphy, NC, just south of the North Carolina line. Arrowhead Valley is an older, established ownership park that was the smallest of the parks we visited and had the oldest rvs parked in the park. It was well maintained, had a small creek passing through it and they did have an open pavilion building and a pool adjacent to it. Below is a picture I copied from their website.

After leaving Arrowhead we continued north leaving Georgia into North Carolina to Murphy. From Murphy we turned back east on Hwy 64 to Hayesville, NC, before turning south on Hwy 69 back to Georgia and Hiawassee. Highway 69 meets Hwy 76 just west of Hiawassee, so we drove through Hiawassee passing beautiful Lake Chatuge as we drove east returning to Clayton then north back to Dillard to complete the journey. We stopped at a rest area on Lake Chatuge to stretch our legs for the 60 minute drive back to Dillard. We were gone six and a half hours on the adventure total. It was a terrific journey but I know of two tired, sore butts from all the sitting.

I’ll leave you today with this picture from the past. Would you believe we passed the vehicle below on the backroads of north Georgia today?

C’mon, you didn’t think we passed this “vehicle” did you? Til next time…………………