Because of my slow nature, I’ve been suspended from writing for my own blog by Lady CurbCrusher. We recently made a trip to North Georgia and on the way stayed at High Falls State Park near Forsyth.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
We left Orlando around 9 am heading to somewhere in GA for the night. We’re on our way to the Blue Ridge Mountains for a week’s stay at Unicoi State Park near Helen.
Most of the trip will be up I-75, a trip we’ve made many times so really nothing new to see. I did not get my state line picture in GA because the sign was blown down along the highway. We stopped at the GA welcome station to eat lunch and pick up info on the places we were staying near. Then we hit the road again.
CurbCrusher’s partner at work told him about this place called Lane’s Peaches that we needed to check out. So just after Perry, in Peach County, at exit 142 we got off and went west for 5 miles to find it. Glad we did -they do have the best peach ice cream I’ve ever tasted. TeenCurbCrusher ordered that and I had the peach cobbler. I ordered a small and it was enough to save for dessert after dinner later. CC ordered a boring pecan pie slice, but he did say it was good as well. They have a large warehouse full of everything to do with peaches:jams, jellies, ciders, fresh peaches, and various household novelties. There is also a production line you can self tour that shows how they bring the peaches in from the orchards and pack them to ship all over.
After our refreshing repast, I gave a call to the KOA in Forsyth and the state park in High Falls to see if they had sites available and they both did. We aimed for the state park because CC loves waterfalls and this one had one that was 100 ft high.
We arrived at 5 pm, just after the office closed, so we were instructed to find a spot, park and the host would be by to collect our money. Well daylight was burning so we left a note for the host that we would be back later and then we left to find the waterfall. Since we would only be here one night we had to check everything out as soon as we could. We drove up to a parking area near the front of the camping area and got out to discover the old powerhouse that was built along the river. This was where they generated power for the area. The building was made of brick but there was nothing left inside, just the walls holding it up. We finished looking around there and then headed up to the parking area where we could access the waterfall. We found a trail to follow and with a short walk could see the waterfall. The trail led down to a platform for better viewing but we could see people actually on the rocks and in the water so we looked for a path to get us down there. We found a really steep one but continued on and soon we were walking on the rocks in the river.
The falls aren’t actually very high but they were still cool because we don’t have them in FL unless they are man made. We walked around the rocks for awhile taking pictures and then headed back to the campsite. The park is spread out with the day use area and the lake camping area(25 ft or less) on one side of the road, and the river camping area on the opposite side.
Back at the campsite (#81) we had dinner and tried to get TV reception, but unless you’re a Spanish speaker there’s not much you can get without a satellite dish. Even then you might not get too much because of the hills and trees in the way. The bathhouse was very clean and newer in the premium area and our site was a pull through on gravel with a table, grill, and fire ring and a light pole. Water and electric only though. The dump station was large but they are building a new one because it keeps backing up, according to a note I saw as we were leaving.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
The next morning we continued to check out the park before we left. We went back to the day use side and saw the pool ($5 pp), mini golf, Yurts on the lake to stay in, and took pictures of the dam above the waterfall. Then we went to the office to check out their store. Most GA parks seem to have a small store located in or near their offices. In FL it’s about half and half. So we always check them out to see what they have. Today we found out that GASP has a new program for campers. If you stay a night you get a sticker and when you have 10 stickers you get a night for free. Since this trip has us staying 6 nights in GA we signed up.
After checking out the rest of the park we went back to leave the campground and continue on our way north.
Click here to see all of our pictures of High Falls.