Hey Guys!
As most of you know by now, we love NC!
We go a few times a year usually over a long weekend.
My parents own a cabin near Murphy, NC so we’ve been going for years.
Lately, we’ve have been renting a cabin instead of staying in my parent’s cabin because we enjoy having a hot tub and their cabin doesn’t have one.
The past few times that we have gone, we rented a cabin from Mountain Country Cabins in Murphy, NC.
Click here for 17 things to do in Murphy and here for 23 things to do in Murphy
We left for our trip on Sat, Oct. 8th.
We arrived to Murphy just in time for lunch ..so, we headed to one of our favorite restaurants, Shoebooties Cafe.
My hubby ordered the prime rib philly sandwich and I ordered the cranberry turkey melt.
Both were delicious…as usual!
After lunch, we headed to the ReMax Mountain Properties’ office to pick up our key to the cabin.
After picking up our key, we headed to our cabin.
We usually rent this one, but decided to try a different cabin this time because they have so many to choose from.
After driving for about 20 mins, we arrived to our cabin.
The cabin was located on a road that was very private and was surrounded by woods on every side.
It was almost a little too private for me….it felt very secluded.
The house was really cool but we liked the location of the other cabin better than this one.
It had 3 bedrooms and a full basement that had a bathroom and a small “game room”.
A couple of pics of the inside 
The house had an awesome deck with a hot tub.
After getting settled in, we headed to Ingles to pick up a few groceries.
On the way, we witnessed an incredible sunset!
After purchasing our groceries, we headed back to the cabin and spent time in the hot tub before hitting the sack.
Click here for hikes in/near Murphy
The next morning, I headed straight for the hot tub!
It was cool and crisp outside and I was surrounded by woods!
It was so relaxing!
While I was relaxing, my hubby prepared us some fruit filled pancakes and bacon.
The pans at the cabin were horrible so my hubby burnt our pancakes!
Oh well, they were still good! lol
After breakfast, we headed to Helen, GA.
The drive took approx. 1 hr 15 mins from our cabin.
Helen is bustling alpine village set against a scenic backdrop of mountains, forests and river banks.
You will feel as though you’ve been transported to the cobblestone streets of Germany’s famed Bamberg or Lindau as colorful shops dot the landscape and the heavenly aroma of authentic German fare takes to the breeze.
We have visited Helen many times and always enjoy our time in the small alpine village.
However, this time when we visited, they were celebrating Oktoberfest and it was packed out!
So, we decided to just drive through and head to a nearby pizza place that we love to eat at called, Nacoochee Village Tavern & Pizzeria.
Read reviews here
The restaurant was packed out!
We grabbed a table outside and waited forever to have our order taken.
We started out with the meatballs as an appetizer.
Then, for my main course, I ordered the 10′ gluten free Dixie Chicken – it came with chicken, bacon, green onions, mozzarella cheese with a vinaigrette base and drizzled with ranch dressing.
It was delicious!
My hubby ordered the Carnivore – it came with a tomato sauce base and topped with sausage, meatballs, pepperoni, hot capocollo ham, fresh basil and mozzarella.
He loved his too but we’ve ordered these pizzas before and knew they were delicious!
After lunch, we drove back through the town of Helen to head back towards Murphy.
Click here for 30 things to do in Helen
Click here to read about the South’s oldest balloon event and the United States’ only long distance hot air balloon race that happens in Helen…the balloon race started in 1974.
Click here & here to read about waterfall hikes you can do in the area
As we were driving back to Murphy, we spotted a field full of sunflowers so we just had to stop to take a few pics!
Click here & here to see Sunflower fields when you are visiting this area
Southern Living Magazine even recommended one of the Sunflower fields in GA!
Click here for more ideas in this area
The field was full of beautiful sunflowers!
Sunflowers typically bloom in this area during the months of July through Sept.
After arriving back to our cabin, my hubby prepared us his favorite thing to eat, hamburgers!
The burgers & stuffed mushrooms were delicious!
After dinner, we spent some time in the hot tub before calling it a night!
The next morning, my hubby prepared us some gluten free cinnamon rules….store bought of course! 😉
We then headed to Tallulah Gorge State Park to spend the day.
We were a little too early for the fall colors.
See a map of the park here & here for the best trails in the park
The drive to the park took approx. 1.5 hrs.
The park consists of 2739 acres, a 63 acre lake, campground with 50 spaces for tents, trailers and RV’s, a visitor center with a gift shop, a picnic shelter, 2 playgrounds, miles of hiking trails, a sand beach and a suspension bridge.
There’s a $5 parking fee and the park is opened from 8 am to 6 pm.
After getting parked, we headed towards the North Rim Trail.
There are several lookouts scattered throughout the park.
A shot of the suspension bridge from one of the overlooks.
The suspension bridge sways 80 feet above the rocky bottom, providing spectacular views of the river and waterfalls.
In 1883, tightrope walker Professor Bachman crossed the gorge as part of a publicity stunt for one hotel. On July 18, 1970, Karl Wallenda became the second man to walk across the gorge on a tightrope.
Tallulah Gorge is one of the most spectacular canyons in the eastern U.S…The gorge is two miles long and nearly 1,000 feet deep.
You can obtain a permit to hike to the gorge floor. The permits are free and limited to 100 a day.
A shot of one of the waterfalls from overlook 3.
The views are nice but would have been even better had the leaves been changed.
We decided to head to the suspension bridge.
This requires you to walk 310 stairs down and 310 stairs back up!
There are signs warning you not to attempt it if you have any health issues!
This was the first hike I’ve ever done where they had water stations along the hike.
Walking down the stairs
A short time later, we made it to the suspension bridge.
It was a bit terrifying crossing it as it was swaying back and forth!
The views from the bridge
After crossing the bridge, we decided to hike the rim trail instead of going back across the bridge.
This required us to walk up 347 steps!
A shot of the stairs 
Make sure you have plenty of water!!
Once we made it to the top, we headed to overlooks 8, 9 and 10.
Views from overlook 8 – from here you could see a view of Hurricane Falls and Pool, Devil’s Pulpit outcrop and the Interpretive Center.
The gorge depth from here was 500 ft.
Heading to the next overlook
From Overlook 9 you could see Hurricane Falls, Oceana Falls, Caledonia Cascasde and the North Rim Overlook 1.
The gorge depth from here was 650 ft.
You can also spot the Peregrine Falcon in this area…they are one of the fastest birds in the world. They can reach speeds of up to 175 mph!
The views from overlook 10 weren’t that great so we turned around and continued along the trail.
A few minutes later, we arrived to Overlook 7 
You could see views of Hawthorne Pool, Tempesta Falls and Pool.
As we continued along the trail, we arrived to the dam.
The Tallulah Falls Lake was created in 1913 by the hydroelectric dam built by Georgia Railway and Power in order to run Atlanta‘s streetcars.
The dam still collects and redirects most of the water via a 6,666-foot tunnel sluice or penstock around the falls to an electricity generation station downstream that is 608 feet lower than the lake, except for a few days each year.
Continuing along the trail
The trail is a loop trail so you will end up back at the parking lot.
After arriving back to the parking lot, we went inside the Interpretive Center.
The center had several informative signs hanging on the walls.
This one talked about the movies that have been filmed at the park.
This one talked about the tight roper that walked across the gorge in 1886.
The Interpretive center had lots of interesting exhibits
After spending about 2 hrs here, we left and headed back to our cabin.
We ended up eating our leftover pizza for dinner.
After dinner, we headed to the hot tub before calling it a night.
The next morning, I, once again, headed straight to the hot tub!
It was just so peaceful and serene!
Later that day, we headed to town to have lunch at the Red Brick Deli.
We grabbed a seat by the window and looked over the menu
We both ended up ordering a Reuben sandwich and a side of potato salad.
The food was so good that we ordered two more sandwiches and some of their homemade cookies before leaving so we could have something to eat on our drive home.
After lunch, we headed back to the cabin to pack up and head home.
On the drive home, we drove alongside the Ocoee River in the Cherokee National Forest.
There were picnic tables alongside the road so we decided to pullover and eat the sandwiches that we had purchased at the Red Brick Deli.
After we finished eating, we continued our drive home.
Thanks for reading!
Read my other blog posts on NC here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here & here