We have roughly two and a half days off, and live in Orlando, Florida. Also, we’re driving. The predicament here is that we have to find a good place to have fun as close to us as possible without jeoporadizing the Good Times.
Any ideas, or knowledge of good spots? We’d like to find a nice place where we could rent a cabin for the night and a raft as we don’t plan on buying a one ourselves. I suppose we’d be ok with propping a tent if that was neccesary, just so long as we’re in a good camping spot. Neither one of us are are very familiar with Georgia. We visit occasionly, we seldom go up there for any recreational reasons.
Does anyone here have any idea where we could find what we’re looking for? We plan to leave midday Wensday and return Friday.
My sister lives near Helen, GA and it is very nice. The town is done up like an Alpine village and the Mighty Chattahoochee river flows right through the town. There are cabins and a beautiful State park there as well. Nice little shops, a winery, horse drawn wagons, etc.
Try not to shoot any rednecks with crossbows, and really try not to have a purty mouth.
In seriousness, I’ve rafted the Chattahoochee, and it’s absolutely fantastic in Georgia. The experience is, however, very tightly controlled, including the ability to shut off the stretch you’re on if there’s an emergency - which might not be Deliverance enough for some people’s requirements. Seek out the little backwoods diners, too - amazing catfish, and the banjo playing is astonishing, even if the conversation ain’t.
If you are fit and adventurous you may want to consider the Chatooga in the NE part of the state. Section IV is some pretty serious stuff and there are several outfitters that you can contact.
Helen sounds good, but the drive is eight hours. My brother is driving and is hoping to have a shorter drive than that. Is there anything a little more in the southern part of Georgia with good rapids, or is that a hard no?
Most of the southern half of Georgia is extremely flat; you won’t find much in the way of whitewater down there. You need mountains for whitewater rafting.
You could try an Okefenokee airboat tour, but it won’t be the same.
Sorry, I got muddled with my rafting. The place that’s really tightly controlled is the Ocoee, where they held the kayaking events for the Atlanta Olympics. It’s very near the Chattahoochee, but probably too far for you to drive.
Yep, all the real whitewater in Georgia is going to be in the northern quarter of the state. The Ocoee is beginner to intermediate (the Olympics portion is only open specific dates) level, the Chatooga is intermediate to advanced level. The Tallulah Gorge river is awesome, but only open a few times per year.
Helen is not where you want to go for whitewater. The “mighty” Chattahoochee is near it’s headwaters there and the river is only 30-40 feet wide and in most places only 6" to 1’ deep. Great for tubing, but not for rafting. The Chattahoochee from Lake Lanier (30 miles north of Atlanta) south is also more for tubing than rafting, but for the opposite reason. The river is generally wide and slow after Buford dam.
Neither I or my brother were aware of Georgia’s georgraphy so a big part of this thread was to find out if we could use our two days to do some rafting in Georgia without spending too much time on the road. however, since it looks like we’d spent both days driving for 8 hours, we’ve opted to do something closer to home. Sky diving perhaps.
So this thread is going to be kept in mind until we can both get more than two days off. It’ll happen. Me and my siblings both wanted to go, but first my sister couldn’t, and then my brother lost an employee and copuldn’t take as long a vacation as he wanted, so this information will be put to use, just later than sooner I’m afraid. Again, thank for all for the help.
