The North Georgia Mountains have been a wonderful find for me. I grew up in New Mexico and Colorado where we were near mountains and spent some time in them while I was young, but I never really gained an appreciation for them. When we moved to North Georgia, I had the opportunity to explore the mountains and find lots of inspiration. As most of you know, I have become an avid gem hunter and gold prospector. It was during one of those trips that I found the house that would become the model for Nana and Beebop’s mountain home in my fantasy adventure series The Gemstone Chronicles!
The Home:
What an amazing place this looked to be! I’m not sure how much land belongs to this place or if there are any old mine shafts on the property, but it easy to imagine there would be. And what about elves, magic, and missing gemstones? They could all be a part of this gorgeous scene! And it was the model for Nana and Beebop’s home!
Running near the property is a gold-bearing creek. How do I know it is gold-bearing? Well, that same creek runs through our favorite gem hunting spot where people have found gold! It just adds to the mystery and possibilities of the mountains.
The River:
Now, in the books, there is a river running through Beebop’s property. Right down the road from the house pictured above, is the Chestatee River (also know to have gold in it). In fact, the Chestatee River runs through one of the gold prospecting properties I visit on occasion! Here is the river that inspired the one running through Beebop’s land.
I had always heard that the mountains could be such a wonderful place to visit and live near. Having spent much of my life in deep South Georgia where it is about as flat as it can be, discovering the wonders of the North Georgia Mountains has been a blessing. They certainly provided me the inspirations for many of settings for my books!
Do you have a favorite spot in the mountains? Do you visit them for scenery or recreation (or both)? Leave me a comment and let me know!!
For skiing, Vail in Colorado is my favorite! We used to mountain bike in Aspen and the foothills of Denver, that is great fun. Hiking is probably my favorite past time in the mountains.
Do you remember when I first moved to Georgia from Denver? You used to laugh at me about being from there! It was a great place to live in the early 70’s. We could bike from our house to Red Rocks. If you want to do a little hiking, y’all come up this way and visit some of the mountains up here. While not as high as the Rockies, there are still some challenges and some of them are less than an hour from our house!