(Photos by Betsy Bethel) Visitors gather on the wide brick sidewalk outside the shops and cafes on Dahlonega’s historic town square. Dahlonega is situated in the heart of North Georgia’s wine country and touts its fine arts and music scene, as well as its claim to fame as the site of the first U.S. gold rush.

I love the mountains. Maybe it’s because I crave change, and so I feast on the way the clouds continually transform the mountainsides with their playful dance of shadow and light.


Maybe it’s simply because I have lived most of my days in the rolling hills of Belmont County. I wonder, would I stand in awe and admiration of pancake-flat prairies and cornfields if I had grown up in Kansas? Perhaps.


But it’s the mountains that call me and where I make my escapes, as often as motherhood and career will allow. My most recent getaway took me to the Blue Ridge Mountains in north Georgia, where the ancient Appalachian range begins, or ends, depending on your perspective.


The region has exploded in the past 10 years or so, with housing popping up on hillsides at every turn. Floridians and Atlantans looking for a retreat from the heat find refreshment, relaxation and recreation in North Georgia’s small towns that brim with antique shops, gold mine and pottery museums, historical sites, Cherokee Indian mounds, art galleries and outdoor pursuits such as hiking, birdwatching, whitewater kayaking and tubing lazily down the Chattahoochee River.


For those who want a home with an unspoiled view, it’s getting harder and harder to come by. But state parks and national forests abound, protecting much of the area from development.