Neighbourhood
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The Apple Capital of Georgia: a courthouse square, two rivers meeting, and orchards that turn the whole county into a queue in October.
Photo: NyttendPublic domain
Twenty-five minutes down the four-lane from Blue Ridge is a town that does the same job differently. Ellijay is the seat of Gilmer County, it sits at 1,280 feet where the Ellijay and Cartecay rivers meet to form the Coosawattee, and it has a courthouse square rather than a railway depot at its centre. About 1,860 people live in the city itself.
The identity is apples. Gilmer County calls itself the Apple Capital of Georgia and the claim is not decorative: the ridges around the town are planted with commercial orchards, the Georgia Apple Festival runs here every October, and from late August into November the roads out of town carry a steady procession of cars going to buy fruit, cider, fried pies and pumpkins from farms that have been doing it for generations.
The distinction that matters for a cabin week is this. Blue Ridge grew out of a railway in 1886 and feels like a resort town that happens to have a Main Street. Ellijay was made county seat in 1834, is named from the Cherokee Elatseyi meaning new ground, and feels like a county town that happens to have visitors. The shops skew more towards antiques and less towards fudge. The restaurants are cheaper. The square is a working one.
East Ellijay, a separate city immediately to the east and south, is where the supermarkets and the chain restaurants are. That matters practically: if your cabin is short of something and Blue Ridge has not got it, East Ellijay usually has.
For a day out, it is a courthouse square, an orchard, lunch, and the drive back up GA-515 with a bag of apples in the boot.
Straight down GA-515 from Blue Ridge, about twenty-five minutes on a four-lane highway. It is the easiest drive from a Blue Ridge cabin to anywhere worth going.
Downtown Ellijay sits just off the highway; follow signs for the city centre rather than East Ellijay if the square is what you want. East Ellijay, immediately adjacent, is where the supermarkets and chain restaurants are.
Parking is street parking and small lots around the courthouse square, which is fine except on festival weekends in October, when the whole approach slows down.
The orchards are mostly on the ridges north and east of town, signed from the main roads and reached on paved county roads rather than gravel.
The season runs from late August through to November, with different varieties coming in across those months rather than everything ripening at once. Early season is for cooking apples and the first eating varieties; October is peak, when the crowds and the cider and the fried pies all arrive together.
The Georgia Apple Festival takes over the town across two weekends in October and it is genuinely busy: traffic backs up on the approaches, the square fills with stalls, and parking becomes a negotiation. Dates move year to year, so check before assuming.
The way to enjoy apple country without the queue is simple and everyone local knows it. Go on a weekday. Go in the morning. Go in September rather than the middle of October. The orchards are open, the fruit is the same, and you can park.
Most of the working orchards sit on the ridges north and east of town on the Ellijay side, with signage from the main roads. Opening varies by farm and by week of the season, and smaller operations close when they sell out for the day.
Bring cash as a backup. Some farm stands are card-only, some are not, and the signal on the orchard roads is poor.
Downtown Ellijay is arranged around the Gilmer County courthouse, a compact grid of two and three-storey brick buildings that has kept its shape because nothing ever knocked it down.
What is in it: antique and vintage dealers, a handful of independent shops, coffee, a few restaurants and bars, and the ordinary business of a county seat carrying on around the visitors. It is smaller than downtown Blue Ridge and less polished, which is either the appeal or the disappointment depending on what you came for.
An hour covers the square properly. Two if you are the sort who goes through an antiques warehouse shelf by shelf, and there is more than one of those here.
Parking is on the street and in small lots around the square, and outside festival weekends it is straightforward.
The rivers are close enough to walk to from the centre, and the Cartecay in particular has a modest local reputation for kayaking after rain, which is a different proposition from the gentle Toccoa an hour north.
They are twenty-five minutes apart on a four-lane highway and they are not interchangeable.
Blue Ridge has the scenic railway, the depot, a denser and more polished Main Street, more restaurants aimed at visitors, and the lake. It is the busier of the two and the more expensive.
Ellijay has the apples, the courthouse square, cheaper lunch, more antiques, and a working-town feel. It also has East Ellijay next door, which is where the practical shopping is.
Both sit on GA-515, so moving between them is easy and neither is a detour from the other.
If you are staying in a cabin near Blue Ridge, the sensible pattern is to treat Ellijay as a half-day: drive down mid-morning, do an orchard and the square, eat, and be back before dark. In October reverse it and go early.
If you are staying near Ellijay, everything above applies in the other direction, and the railway is the thing worth driving up for.
Straight-line distances, so allow more on the road — the island is long and has one main parkway.
Georgia's tallest waterfall at 729 feet, about an hour south, with a staircase of six hundred-odd steps up the side of it.
1.5–5 hoursGeorgia state park daily parking pass per vehicle; annual passes available.16.2 mi away
Photograph: Thomsonmg2000
Casts, field recordings and expedition kit on Highway 515: the county's most reliable hour indoors when the weather turns.
1–1.5 hoursAround $9 adults and teens, $6 children 5-12, under 5s free.9.6 mi away
Photograph: Unsplash
A fourth-generation apple farm with a bakery, a hard cider house and, on an October Saturday, a car park like a county fair.
1–3 hoursFree to visit the market, bakery and cider house. U-pick and tastings are charged.15.5 mi away
Photograph: Thomson200
Four blocks of shopfronts facing a working railway depot, small enough to walk twice and busy enough to need a parking plan in October.
1–4 hoursFree. Street parking is free and scarce on peak weekends.14.8 mi away
Photograph: Thomson M
Where this place fits into a day, and the pages that plan one.
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A family orchard since 1943, over forty apple varieties, and the busiest car park in Fannin County by lunchtime in October. What is ripe when, and when to turn up.
6 min readNadine Colquitt
Photograph: Unsplash
About twenty-five minutes, straight down GA-515 on a four-lane highway. It is the simplest drive from a Blue Ridge cabin to anywhere worth visiting, with no gravel and no mountain bends. East Ellijay, immediately next to it, is where the supermarkets and chain restaurants are, which makes the trip doubly useful if your cabin needs restocking as well as a day out.
Because Gilmer County's ridges carry the state's main concentration of commercial apple orchards, several of them family operations going back generations. The season runs from late August into November with varieties coming in across those months, and the Georgia Apple Festival takes over the town across two October weekends. Outside that festival, weekday mornings in September are the way to see apple country without the traffic.
It runs across two weekends in October in Ellijay, and the exact dates move year to year, so confirm rather than assuming. It is genuinely busy: the square fills with stalls, traffic backs up on the approaches, and parking becomes a long walk. If you want apples rather than a festival, the orchards are open throughout the season and a weekday in September gives you the same fruit with none of the queue.
Yes, as a half-day rather than a rival. Ellijay is a courthouse town rather than a railway resort: it has the apple orchards, a compact square of brick buildings with antique dealers and independent shops, cheaper lunch and a working-town atmosphere. Blue Ridge has the scenic railway, the lake and the more polished Main Street. Twenty-five minutes apart, they complement each other rather than duplicating.
