Ga. mountain resort ideal for rest or play

By KATHY WITT
For The Tennessean

DAHLONEGA, Ga. — Looking for the perfect do-nothing or try-everything weekend? Head south to the north Georgia mountains and the 140-acre Forrest Hills Mountain Resort, whose name means "for rest." Surrounded by the layered peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains and sitting at the first steps of the Appalachian Trail, the resort fully lives up to the promise of its appellation.

This is Forrest Hill's 30th anniversary, and the resort has opened the 7,000-square-foot, environmentally friendly Anidawehi Plantation Wellness Centre. With its emphasis on health and healing, the center fits in perfectly with the family-owned resort that was created to feel like home.

"It's a world that's been developed by our hopes and dreams and the hopes and dreams of our guests over the past 30 years," says Michele Kraft-DeBlois, general partner at Forrest Hills.

Stepping out of the spa, visitors can take in everything from animals to fine and funky arts and smooth and stellar wines.

Amenities abound

The full-service resort has every amenity and a full roster of R & R possibilities.

Travelers can enjoy a horse-drawn carriage ride at forest's edge, guided horseback riding in the woods, spa treatments such as hot stone massages and paraffin facials, swimming and sunning at the pool, sand volleyball and horseshoes, a gym with weight and cardio machines and two miles of gentle walking trails.

The gift shop has movies to borrow to watch in your cabin, and the Gold City Corral offers dinner wagon rides to the nearby River House for steak and chicken chuck-wagon-style dining, plus bonfire and live entertainment.

Dining choices, with an emphasis on made-from-scratch cooking, are no less plentiful or spectacular.

A Sunday lunch buffet rolls out in the Hideaway Dining Room with Southern-style comfort food (don't miss the sweet potato souffle).

Authentic Appalachian-style cuisine is served at the Forrest Hills Restaurant and in the Secret Garden, a tables-for-two restaurant featuring candlelight dinners; and gourmet lunches are packed by the resort for those interested in hiking to the "Edge of the World" for a romantic picnic.

Accommodations range from elegantly rustic to luxury cabins and cottages to charming bed-and-breakfast rooms to authentic reproduction Victorian cottages replete with gingerbread trim and patio goldfish pond.

While all are uniquely decorated with a full menu of amenities, some of the cabins are outfitted with Amish-made sofas and oversized ottomans, customized mattresses, all-season fireplaces, private in-room hot tubs surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the great outdoors and balconies or porches and other cozy components.

Surrounding all the lodging options are heavy woods and lush gardens.

"Mountain laurel, rhododendron and wildflowers — even azaleas — are blooming in profusion this time of year," says Kraft-DeBlois.

See animals and art

Nearby are several worthwhile attractions, including Chestatee Wildlife Preserve with more than 100 animals and dozens of species from around the world, including rare Siberian white tigers, plus baby bears, leopards, cougars and tigers and a variety of snakes including the Burmese python.

The preserve sits in bucolic splendor on more than 20 acres of gently rolling farmland. Visitors can meander among the exhibits, feed some of the animals, enjoy lunch at one of the many picnic tables and spend time at the playground.

Less than a mile from the resort is the Funky Chicken Art Project, an art gallery and outdoor sculpture garden for whimsical, contemporary and quality works of art tucked with a kicky vibe into a renovated building that, until 1995, was a dilapidated chicken house in the middle of nowhere.

Christina White and her husband and business partner, James Sargous, opened the gallery in 1995 and have shepherded its growth over the years. Today, it includes works from about 150 artists, predominantly from the Southeast, including Sargous' metal sculptures and flower paintings.

The collection is contemporary with a lively mix of mediums and styles, vibrant color and sometimes-playful subject matter, including jewelry, oil and acrylic paintings, fiber art, sculptures in metal, stone or cement and mosaic. Rounding out the mix are some studious pieces on different philosophies, including White's work exploring medieval woodcarving symbolism.

The Bowen Center for the Arts has three galleries, including one that doubles as the center's primary teaching area, and mounts 12 shows each year. Executive Director Ginger Quinn says the center prides itself on finding new ways to present art and new art forms to display in order to reach a broad audience.

"We like to think out of the box," she says. "At our Flash in Time photography show last October, we did a 1940s Hollywood theme and, with the exception of the photography, everything, including the music and dress, spoke to that time period."

At the Dahlonega Arts Council, the annual Spring Art Show and Sale is under way at the Olde Cannery Art Center, a historic 1940s building constructed by the Works Progress Administration that is being renovated. Next to the Old Jail, the center is one large room with wall space dedicated to gallery showings of local artists working in all media, plus a small gift shop. Because it offers art classes throughout the year, visitors sometimes find tables and chairs set up in the middle of the gallery as students work at their art.

Taste local wines

The seventh annual Georgia Wine Country Festival unfolds in early June at the Three Sisters Vineyards & Winery, on a 180-acre family farm in the heart of Dahlonega's Frogtown District and in the shadow of the peaks for which it is named.

Sponsored by Montaluce Vineyards & Estates and the Georgia Wine Council, the event will uncork a number of Georgia wines; past attendees have included Boutier Winery, Butterducks Winery, Georgia Wines, Montaluce Vineyards, Paulk Vineyards, Still Pond Winery, Chestatee and Three Sisters. The event showcases live music, from bluegrass, folk and Americana to rock 'n' roll. LD & Marty Nix, Route 66, Holly & Curtis Jones and The Appalachian Saint Andrew's Pipe & Drum Corps, among others, will perform this year.

Visitors can take a wagon ride with Gold City Corral into the vineyard, enjoy culinary demonstrations, sample a selection of Georgia cheeses from Sweet Grass Dairy of Thomasville, shop for Georgia folk art and meet special folk art guest artist John "Cornbread" Anderson, a self-taught artist known for his stylized paintings that bring scenes of nature and childhood memories of growing up in rural north Georgia to life in vivid color.