The North Georgia Neighborhood: North Carolina and Tennessee

The following is a part of a series on "Everything You Ever Needed to Know about Dahlonega's Outdoor Sports."

View of Fontana Lake, NC
from the Tsali Trail System

One of the cool things about living in Dahlonega is that we have access to plentiful outdoor opportunities right outside our doors, and we also are within easy driving distance of even greater natural resources.  For instance, the North Carolina border is only an hour away, putting the Tsali Trail System at just about 2 1/2 hours away.  Pisgah National Forest is roughly 3 1/2 hours from here, and the Chattanooga, Tennessee area is about 3 to 3 1/2 the other way.

All of those locations hold classic mountain biking! In addition, the Chattanooga area has a heavy saturation of rock climbing opportunities, and Pisgah also contains some great rock to climb.  The Nantahala Outdoor Center located between Dahlonega and Tsali is the place to be for everything whitewater... and it has a nice mountain bike trail, too. As far as hiking and trail running is concerned, anywhere near the Appalachian trail is going to have an abundance of foot-travel-only trails, and since the A.T. winds all across Georgia and North Carolina, you can be sure this entire region qualifies!

The Nantahala Outdoor Center

Series Conclusion

Outdoors sports abound here in North Georgia: mountain biking, road biking, day hiking, backpacking, trail running, canoeing, slow water kayaking, whitewater kayaking, rock climbing, bouldering, and probably more!  The one thing we don't really have access to is a reliable winter season, which I find exceedingly frustrating due to my long-time addiction to powder skiing. So beyond the lack of downhill skiing, cross country skiing, and snowboarding, Dahlonega and the greater North Georgia Neighborhood have got you covered!