Poor Wardrobe Choices, Prime Wandering
An afternoon in Helen, Georgia
My day in Helen, Georgia started with a mistake.
A few hours earlier, I was standing at the top of Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia, wondering how I had managed to be so unprepared for June weather. I had expected sunshine and comfortable temperatures. Instead, I found myself cold enough to make an emergency purchase from the gift shop: a pair of sweatpants.
Not exactly the souvenir I had planned on bringing home. However, those sweatpants ended up being an excellent decision and are arguably some of the coziest I own.
After leaving Brasstown Bald, I made my way to Helen, a small Bavarian-inspired town tucked into the North Georgia mountains. By the time I arrived, a light drizzle had settled over the area and the temperatures were cool enough that I was grateful for my unexpected new wardrobe.
Helen is one of those places that feels delightfully out of place. Colorful alpine-style buildings line the streets, flower boxes hang from balconies, and the Chattahoochee River winds directly through town. For a moment, it feels less like Georgia and more like a small European village hidden in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
First, I stopped for lunch at The Troll Tavern and ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with a side of fries. Maybe it was the cool weather. Maybe it was all the walking. Maybe it was because I had just spent the morning in emergency sweatpants on top of a mountain. Whatever the reason, it was exactly what I wanted, and the fries were some of the best I've had in a long time.
(Gooey “Chattaho-Cheese” Sandwich with a side of fries)
The drizzle never turned into a downpour, just enough rain to make everything feel a little cozier. As I enjoyed my lunch on the covered patio, I caught the occasional sight of tubers floating down the Chattahoochee as if they were enjoying an entirely different season than I was. Wrapped in my recently acquired sweatpants, I watched them pass and decided I had made the better choice. Excellent entertainment, in my opinion.
I spent the rest of the afternoon doing my favorite kind of traveling: wandering without much of a plan.
After lunch, I walked and popped into what felt like every shop in town. One store sold nothing but socks covered in sayings, puns, and colorful designs. Another featured glass-blowing demonstrations and handcrafted pieces. I wandered through fudge shops, chocolate shops, coffee shops, and more classic tourist stores than I could possibly count. Some places I entered because they looked interesting. Others because I was curious what could possibly be inside. That's one of the joys of Helen—it's the kind of town where wandering becomes the attraction.
What I loved most about Helen wasn't any particular attraction. It was the feeling of the place. The slower pace. The mountain air. The mix of visitors wandering through town and tubers drifting down the river. The freedom to spend an afternoon with nowhere specific to be. I never made it onto the Mountain Coaster on this trip, thanks to the rain, but that's just one more reason to come back.
Travel often gets packaged into bucket lists, must-see attractions, and perfectly planned itineraries. But some of my favorite travel memories come from the unexpected moments—the wrong outfit, the surprise weather, the meal that ends up being better than anticipated, the town you explore simply because you had the time.
Helen gave me all of those things.
And while I didn't expect to spend part of my June day bundled up in gift-shop sweatpants, I can't imagine the day without them.
If you're looking for a day trip that rewards curiosity more than planning, Helen is worth the wander.
bytaylormcgee
Tubing!
