All About Rabun's Mountain Lakes

10/01/2026

Black Rock Mountain State Park is Rabun County’s pride and joy!

🌄 Two raindrops can land three feet apart up here and end up in different oceans.

Black Rock Mountain State Park sits above Mountain City in Rabun County, and at 3,640 feet it is the highest state park in Georgia. The dark cliffs that gave it the name are biotite gneiss, a metamorphic rock that runs under a big part of the Georgia Blue Ridge.

Here is the part almost nobody mentions. The park straddles the Eastern Continental Divide. Rain falling on the eastern slope works its way into the Savannah River system and out to the Atlantic. Rain falling a few steps west goes into the Little Tennessee, then the Tennessee, then the Ohio, then the Mississippi, and finally the Gulf. Same cloud, same minute, two completely different endings. The 2.2 mile Tennessee Rock Trail walks that line for part of its length, so you can stand with one foot on each side of the split.

On a clear day the overlooks give you about eighty miles of southern Appalachians and four states at once: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Four more peaks inside the park top 3,000 feet.

It almost did not happen. A Rabun County man named John V. Arrendale started buying pieces of the mountain in 1938, beginning with seventy acres, and kept at it for years. The state park opened in 1952 with about a thousand acres. It covers roughly 1,743 today.

Have you ever stood on a ridge and realized the water at your feet was headed somewhere completely different than the water behind you?

Photo: Thomson200, CC0

09/19/2026

Rabun County is home to a wonderful artist colony…The Hambridge Center

08/31/2026

Looking for a super fun, adults-only way to start your fall... 🍁 on the farm? 🌽 Jaemor Farms has just the event for you! 🎃

📸: Jaemor Farms

08/31/2026

They've been planning to honor her for months.

08/31/2026

08/31/2026

Why We Still Need Places Like This

There was a time when getting away really meant getting away.

It meant sitting on a porch without checking the time. Dinner was something you lingered over. Conversations weren't interrupted by the next thing on the schedule, and an evening might end beside a fireplace rather than in front of another screen.

Maybe that's why places like the Lake Rabun Hotel still matter.

Since 1922, people have made their way to this little corner of the North Georgia mountains. The world outside has changed dramatically during those years, but some of the best things about being here haven't.

There are still rocking chairs and porches. There are still meals prepared to be enjoyed rather than rushed. There are trails to walk, waterfalls to discover and a lake just down the road. There are quiet rooms at the end of the evening and mornings when the mountains seem to remind you that there's really no reason to hurry.

Historic hotels preserve more than old buildings. At their best, they preserve a way of experiencing a place—and perhaps even a way of experiencing each other.

The Lake Rabun Hotel has never been about keeping the world out. It's simply a place that makes it a little easier to turn the volume down.

And in a world that seems determined to move faster every day, maybe we still need places that remind us it's perfectly all right to slow down.

👏

08/30/2026

A mountain town with fewer than 3,000 people and a dining scene that keeps folks coming back is always worth a second look. Down there in the foothills, you can still find meals that feel tied to the pace of the place, where supper matters and people know how to linger a little.

That’s what makes Clayton interesting. It’s small, but the food reputation is not. You get the feeling this is a town where a good restaurant can become part of the routine, part of the reason people make the drive.

I’ve always liked places that punch above their weight without making a big speech about it. That’s the kind of town I’d happily wander with an appetite. 👇👇

🔗 https://dailywise.com/state/georgia/this-mountain-town-in-georgia-has-some-of-the-best-food-around/?utm_source=georgia&utm_medium=dw&utm_campaign=fb&utm_content=628745896980756

08/30/2026

North Georgia venue Jaemor Farms will feature a Dolly Parton tribute corn maze in Alto this fall. MORE BELOW⬇️

07/09/2026

Lake Burton celebrates the 4th!!!!