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The Area

Restaurants

Our favorite restaurants and haunts

Blue Jeans Pizza  - The owner is a veteran and this is a veteran proud business.  The Pizza's are GREAT

Cantaberry (American (New), Delis, Desserts - Rated #1 on TripAdvisor)

Black Sheep (American, Bars - Can be tough to get seated without a reservation.  The best white tablecloth restaurant in Blue Ridge)

Grumpy Old Men (Brewery)

Rum Cake Lady (Cuban sandwiches and the BEST Rum Cake you will ever eat)

Habaneros (Tex Mex in Copper Hill, TN)

Leisure

Things to do: 

The Blue Ridge area is a vacation paradise. In addition to temperate weather year-round, the mountains host festivals, arts & crafts shows, car shows, dirt track racing, concerts, theatre, and parades. Follow this link to see what is happening in Blue Ridge: http://www.blueridgemountains.com/cgi-bin/eventshow2.pl 

Blue Ridge scenic railroad www.brsoenic.com

Mercier Orchard www.mercier-orchards.com The orchard can be seen from the main deck of the lodge


Drive-in movieshttp://www.swan-drive-in.com/now-showing.php

Ocoee White Water Center https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/cherokee/recarea/?recid=35096


Cohutta Wilderness:

Brasstown Bald is the highest point in Georgia. Brasstown Bald is located about 18 miles east of Blue Ridge just off the expressway near Blairsville, GA. There is a spectacular museum, ranger station, and viewing tower at the top of the mountain that may be reached by shuttle bus or a 1/2 mile walk up a paved medium difficulty trail from the parking lot. Here is a link to a current view from live cameras located on top of the visitor’s
center: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/conf/home/?cid=fsm9_029190 

Some of the areas of interest include:

  • White water rafting on the Ocoee River at the site of the 1996 Olympics white water events.

  • Trout fishing -guided expeditions are available from the outfitter in downtown Blue Ridge

  • Hunting, Horseback riding

  • Hiking in the adjacent Cohutta Wilderness, Rafting and canoeing on the Toccoa River in McCaysville

  • Bird watching - from the main deck of the Sunrock Lodge. We have seen over 15 varieties of birds.

Historical

The area known as Fannin County and Blue Ridge was once the home of the Cherokee Indians. The first white settlers in the area near the turn of the nineteenth century are believed to have come from the north down the Toccoa River valley which separates what is now the Cohutta Wilderness and the mountains of the Blue Ridge. The area is unique in this regard because most of the rest of Georgia was settled from the south and east.

Blue Ridge arose primarily from a decision by the Marietta and North Georgia railroad to avoid steep grades near Morganton and follow the relatively flat Toccoa valley through Blue Ridge where they established a terminal. This rail terminal launched Blue Ridge as the commerce center for the region bringing tourists to the area and taking logging and farming products south. By the late 1950s with the demise of passenger rail service, tourism in the area languished. The completion of the four-lane Georgia Mountain Parkway from Atlanta in the late 1980s resulted in a flood of new tourism. Today, Blue Ridge is a hub of commerce and tourism for the northern part of Georgia. The tourism industry has brought thousands of visitors to the area, many from Florida seeking cooler climates in the summer and temperate winters. Tourism has spawned a massive building boom in the past ten years According to US Census data; the number of housing units in Fannin County grew 32% from 1990 to 2000. Much of that growth and much of the growth since 2000 have been in investment properties. There are now over ten cabin rental companies operating in Fannin County and hundreds of owner-managed short term rental properties available in the Blue Ridge area.

General

The Blue Ridge, GA area is a vacation paradise. The quaint towns of Blue Ridge, GA, McCaysville, TN are full of antique and craft shops. The Blue Ridge Scenic railway http://www.brscenic.com/ operates train service from Blue Ridge to McCaysville on a regular schedule throughout the year. There are festivals, shows, and events throughout the year in Blue Ridge. The peak season for Blue Ridge is from early October through

mid-November during the leaf change. Some of the areas of interest include:


- Shopping
- Antiquing

Follow this link to see what is happening now in the Blue Ridge area:

http://www.blueridgemountains.com/cgi-bin/eventshow2.pl


See the mountains from Brasstown Bald in real-time: 

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/conf/home/?cid=fsm9_029190 

Blue Ridge Georgia is served by Fannin Regional Hospital which is located less than three miles from Sunrock Lodge. Information about the hospital which has 24-hour emergency room service may be found at http://www.fanninregionalhospital.com/fannin-regional-hospital/home.aspx

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