Nothing too hard here, but lots of old-world-themed fun (and plenty to eat.)
Photo Above: Downtown Helen, Georgia, features Bavarian-style architecture.
Photos Courtesy of Leonard and Laurie Adkins.
Three straight nights of heavy rain during an extended car camping trip in northern Georgia persuaded Laurie and me to seek indoor accommodations to dry out a bit. Unicoi State Park’s lodge became the logical choice when we found its rate for two nights was the same or lower than many other lodgings in or around Helen. It also enabled us to walk the park’s more than 10 miles of trails, including the 3-mile route that leads to the center of the Bavarian-themed village.
There are no spectacular overlooks or roaring waterfalls along the way, but that’s OK, as the pathway passes through a pleasant variety of hardwood forests, evergreen groves, murmuring streams, towering rhododendron bushes and lush patches of ferns. Close to a mile in, a mowed meadow provides a more expansive view of the sky just before the trail crosses an elaborately constructed wooden bridge across Lower Smith Creek. The feeling of isolation that was present in the deep woods at about two miles fades away as the route goes by a water tower and comes into town.
Since we had started the walk before breakfast, we stopped in Hofer’s of Helen to share orders of German potato pancakes and apfelküchle (sliced apples dipped in batter, fried and speckled with cinnamon sugar). In fact, I’m sure we consumed more calories during the day than we expended walking, as sampling the local fare became interspersed with our explorations of the town’s attractions.
Watching an HO train traveling around a stylized scene of alpine Germany in Charlemagne’s Kingdom was followed by hand-dipped chocolates from the Hansel and Gretel Candy Kitchen. Admiring the works of local artists in the Arts and Heritage Center and the skill demonstrated in The Glassblowing Shop brought us to bowls of goulash for lunch at the Old Bavaria Inn.
We let all of that settle as we walked by re-created old-world architecture and perused some of the more than 200 shops of handmade wooden toys, cuckoo clocks, handcrafted quilts, souvenirs and mementoes. (I was happy to see that Betty’s Country Store carries my Blue Ridge Parkway and Appalachian Trail books!) Small, almost inconspicuous, paintings added bits of whimsy to the outside walls of some of the buildings. And we watched, more than 50 people perched on giant tubes go floating by in the Chattahoochee River as it flows through the center of town.
Samples of the red, white and fruit wines offered by Fox Winery within the confines of a narrow cobblestone alley led to some silliness as we posed with the painted plywood cutout depicting the garb of Bavarian residents. Scoops of white chocolate mocha and fudge caramel swirl at Homemade Ice Cream, Gifts and More brought the feasting to a close just before we headed back up the trail to the state park.
A Bit of History
Helen was experiencing a decline in visitors in the late 1960s when business leaders envisioned having all buildings in town renovated with Bavarian-style architecture. The plan, along with an extensive publicity campaign, worked, and today the village of less than 600 inhabitants attracts tens of thousands of sightseers annually.
When You Go
The Walk: A moderately easy 3-mile (or moderate 6-mile roundtrip) walk into Helen from Unicoi State Park. Shopping, dining and meandering around town will add another 1 to 2 miles.
Directions: From Unicoi Hill Park (where you could leave a shuttled car) in Helen, drive GA 75/GA17 northwestward for 1.7 miles. Turn right onto GA 356 and follow it 1.8 miles to the park lodge.
More information: Short descriptions of all of the park’s trails are available on explore.gastateparks.org/unicoi-trails.
Find out more about Leonard’s walking and hiking adventures at habitualhiker.com.
The story above appears in our September / October 2020 issue.
