Voyaging Berts: Yonah Mountain

Me and bestie, she's my rock!

Yonah Mountain is near and dear to my heart for a lot of reasons. My husband proposed here, our dog is named after the mountain and the vineyard is excellent. For those interested, Yonah is actually the Cherokee word for bear. This hike is not for the faint of heart, it clocks in around 6 miles (closer to 5 if you take the steeper shortcut pathways) and is a steep grade. However, if you love hiking and you are up for a challenge, the end most certainly justifies the means.

My best friend and her fiance had never done the hike before so when they asked us to join in, we jumped at the chance! They actually live a ways north of the city and since we live on the south side, it can sometimes be hard to coordinate our schedules (especially during the week with all the horrendous traffic).

Yonah Mountain is actually located near Helen, GA which is about an hour and half maybe two hours from us. Honestly, once you're out of the city, it's actually a really scenic drive through north Georgia, too. The only bad part about this hike is the trails get really full, you'll see from the photos below. So we decided to man up and leave early to beat some of the rush and hopefully get the mountain to ourselves. What we didn't count on was all the ice! It made for some gorgeous photos but definitely was a bit difficult to navigate at time especially on the trails that were stone instead of dirt. We made it to the top in around 45 minutes, which honestly I was pretty happy with. And our dedication paid off, we were able to find a gorgeous view where we weren't bothered by anyone!

Another cool thing about Yonah- it's actually where the Army Rangers train in mountain climbing. A word of caution - there are some pretty steep drops, so if you make to the top but be very careful!

Anyway, by the time we were hitting the trails to head back to the car, there were a ton of people! I was really happy we were able to have so much solitude to enjoy the views. By the time we made it back to the car, we were all famished. So we hit up the local burger joint, appropriately named Yonah Burger. While we were waiting to place our orders, we noticed all the fresh pies and decided those were definitely happening! Sadly, we ate them before our burgers came out (if you're a fan of peaches... definitely try it!) The food was great, and by the time we were finished I think we were all ready for a nap! We said our goodbyes and headed back to the city for a lazy afternoon.

Yonah is a great day trip and we had a ton of fun just being in the great outdoors with great company. But I'm really excited because we have two trips coming up, one of which is going to have tons of different stops so be on the lookout for great stuff coming soon! Ta ta for now!