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⛰️ Mountains

Black Rock Mountain State Park

Mountain City, GA · North Georgia Mountains

About

Georgia's highest state park sits at 3,640 feet astride the Eastern Continental Divide, where summit overlooks open 80-mile vistas across four states on a clear day. From the visitor center deck you can walk the 2.2-mile Tennessee Rock Trail loop to the divide's high point through northern hardwood forest. Come at dawn for layered ridge fog, or in October for some of north Georgia's best leaf color.

Highlights

Highest state park in Georgia at 3,640 feet elevationSummit overlooks with views of four states2.2-mile Tennessee Rock Trail along the Eastern Continental DivideSpur trail to the small Ada-Hi FallsStandout fall foliage and a stocked mountain lake

Getting there

3085 Black Rock Mountain Parkway, Mountain City, GA 30562

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Brasstown Bald

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At 4,784 feet, Brasstown Bald is the highest point in Georgia, and its summit observation deck delivers a 360-degree view that on clear days reaches into four states. Ride the shuttle or hike the steep half-mile paved path from the parking lot to the tower, then explore the mountaintop museum of Appalachian natural and cultural history. Come in late October for some of the most vivid fall color in the Southeast.

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Springer Mountain

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Lakes & rivers

Amicalola Falls State Park

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Forests

Cohutta Wilderness

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Anna Ruby Falls

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Carters Lake

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Backed up behind the tallest earthen dam east of the Mississippi, Carters Lake is the deepest reservoir in Georgia, plunging some 450 feet beneath sheer, undeveloped shoreline with almost no lakefront homes. Launch a boat or kayak from one of the Army Corps ramps to fish for spotted bass and walleye, then hike the bluff trails above the Coosawattee. Stop at the visitor center near the dam for maps and the overlook.

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From Tallulah Gorge to Brasstown Bald, the waterfalls, summits and wilderness of Georgia's Blue Ridge: Cloudland Canyon and the Cohutta in the northwest, Amicalola and Springer in the center, the Rabun highlands in the northeast.

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Georgia's state parks pack a remarkable range into one state. Up north there are deep gorges and the tallest cascading waterfall in the Southeast; in the southwest, a pink-and-orange canyon erosion carved out of old farmland; through the middle, mineral springs and CCC-built lodges; and down south, the wild blackwater edge of the Okefenokee. These are the ones worth building a weekend around, from the Blue Ridge to the coast.