You’ve heard of the Blue Ridge Mountains right?

Brasstown Bald is the highest point in Georgia near Blairsville, peaking at 4,784 feet above sea level giving you 360 degree views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. View the live web cam here.

The cost is $5 per person over 16 and free for 15 and under.  And don’t worry if you don’t have cash because the gift shop will gladly take your card.

You drive up only a couple of miles off the main road to get to the extremely large parking lot. It seemed like most people took the bus (van) up to the top. There is a gift shop and bathrooms near the parking lot and there is a .6 mile paved trail to the top in-between the two building.

We figured if we were going to the top we were going to hike it.  The .6 mile hike up was steep, but more than doable with our 5 and 7 year olds. Both would have ran the entire way to the top if we could have caught up with them.

Once you cross the road the bus drives over to get to the top, you are just about there. Once you reach the top you’ll see a small museum and you can walk along the roof for breath taking 360 degree views of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.

If you have little ones with you, there is a cool little scavenger hunt they can do in the museum.  All of the answers are marked with stickers throughout the museum to help.  But if your slightly impatient with your 5 year old who doesn’t really care and just wants the surprise at the end, the answers are also printed on the back of the scavenger hunt paper.

Riley was very interested in the Iron Pyrite – as knows as Fools Gold.

When you are at the top you’ll be able to see for 85 miles in every direction.  There is an additional tower that would get you even higher, but we later found out it is used by the forest service only to look for and spot wild fires.

Every half hour until 4:30 a video plays in a small theater under the watch tower.  The video is informational, but also very dated and a little boring. If you have 14 minutes to spare while you’re up there you can watch it and just be able to say you did. It reviews the mountain in all seasons. The mountain is so high around the surrounding area that it has weather all its own and has never been above 84 degrees, but boasts a low of -27!

After spending about an hour at the top, which included 14 minutes in the theater, we headed back down. The trek down seemed more strenuous than going up, but only on the shins.  Overall, it was a nice little walk back down the wooded path.

Now, if the trail wasn’t covered in shade you would have found us on the bus for sure. It was cool underneath the forest canopy.

We stopped in the gift shop at the bottom and treated the kids to some ice cream and checked out some of the nicknacks they had to offer. We picked up a North Georgia hiking trail book to scout out our next Blue Ridge adventures.

While we were heading back to our rig one of the guides mentioned we came at a good time.  He said it will be very busy during Labor Day weekend and in a few weeks after when it starts too cool and and autumn rolls in it will be crazy busy.  I can only imagine how beautiful the view will be with all the trees changing colors.

All and all we had a good time. $10 for a couple of hours of memories was well worth it.  This may have been our first time at Brasstown Bald, but it definitely won’t be our last.  Great family day trip.