Photos: Thomson20192 / CC0 · Anthony Rizzo / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Thomson200 / CC0 1.0
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.
17 places · North Georgia
Must-seeA 729-foot tumbling waterfall, the highest in the Southeast, and the gateway to the Appalachian Trail approach in a popular state park.
Must-seeThe state's loftiest summit at 4,784 feet, with a 360-degree observation deck that takes in four states on a clear day.
Must-seeA dramatic 1,000-foot-deep chasm with rim trails, a swinging suspension bridge and waterfalls plunging through the rock.
Must-seeDeep sandstone canyons, hardwood forest and two waterfalls reached by a long stair descent on the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau.
Must-seeMore than 36,000 acres of rugged, trail-laced national-forest backcountry, with trout streams and remote ridgelines.
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ForestsOther lists that cover the same ground.
18 placesGeorgia'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.
26 placesThe ancient, blue-hazed peaks of the southern Appalachians, threaded by the Blue Ridge Parkway from Shenandoah to the Smokies. Mile-high summits and the highest peak east of the Mississippi, waterfalls you can walk behind, long-range overlooks, and mountain towns like Asheville with the Biltmore at their heart. Go in October for the color, but the haze is blue year-round.
45 placesThe Georgia stops worth building a day around. Atlanta's Coca-Cola vault and a whale shark the size of a school bus, the oak-shaded squares of Savannah, a visionary's painted folk-art compound in Buena Vista, FDR's Little White House, and a 56-foot sheet-metal chicken in Marietta. The famous, the historic, and the gloriously strange.
6 placesNorth Georgia's gloriously weird side: a Bigfoot museum, the Cabbage Patch Kids' birthplace, a heritage railway, a forest slowly eating 4,000 vintage cars, a gold mine you climb inside, and the South's biggest apple orchard.