Here we are in front of our barrel cabin at Unicoi State Park.
This past weekend we had a family getaway to Unicoi State Park. We reserved a cabin for two nights (see above.) We planned to go up on Saturday and return Monday. Part of the plan was to go to Scaly Mountain in North Carolina to go snow tubing. The forcast for the weekend was rain all day on Sunday, so I thought we should go on up to snow tube and then to head over to Unicoi. Scaly Mountain is a easy two hour drive from Atlanta. Unicoi is one hour from Scaly Mtn. Sounded like a good plan. Saturday was super overcast and not cold. On the way up to snow tube, we stop at a BBQ place called OINKERS. We love BBQ and found this place quite tasty. When we finally got to Scaly Mtn., we found that it is a bit crowded ( and a bit smaller than we pictured in our minds). Since we would spend most of our time waiting in line than actually tubing, we decided to go on to Unicoi and maybe come back on Sunday or Monday. The girls did ice skate at the small out-door rink there before we headed out.
Getting to Unicoi from Scaly Mtn. was super easy, about one hour. We checked in at the Lodge and then headed over to the cabins. Although the cabins were tear drop shaped, they are called "barrel cabins." Our cabin was one of ten in a grouping: two levels, back deck, fireplace, fully equipped kitchen, 2 bedrooms on the second level, lake view. Not too bad, although we were down at the bottom of the hill. Parking at the top. Fortunately it was still daylight and had not yet begun to rain. With five folks unloading and carrying, it didn't take us long at all to get everything into our cabin. We then headed out to explore a bit before it got dark. We were right by the lake, so we hit the lake side trail and went a ways. We skipped a few stones in the lake, played in the playground, checked out the visitor's center store for the campgrounds then headed back to make supper.
I had planned out all the meals for the weekend. (2 dinners (burgers, chili) , 2 breakfasts (eggs/bacon/grits/toast, pancakes/bacon), snacks (Goldfish, Puppy Chow, fruit snacks and other treats we don't typically have) for the cabin... lunches: eat out someplace.)
Dinner that first night: Bubba Burgers, cole slaw, chips.
Tom brought charcoal for the grill that was right outside the cabin. (Each cabin has its own grill.) I carmelized onions and sauteed mushrooms for the burgers. While Tom was grilling it began to rain. He used a trash can lid to keep the coals from getting wet. I made coleslaw and served chips. Cupcakes for dessert. Caroline made the cake part, Mary Elizabeth the frosting. The kids proclaimed, "These are best hamburgers ever!"
Pretty lake at Unicoi.
Tom promptly had a fire going in the cabin at all times. Sooo nice. We brought a ton of firewood up from home. There is nothing like a real fire. I hear that the fireplaces in the cabins at Black Rock Mtn. Park are now gas. I don't think I want to go there.
It started raining Saturday night and didn't stop raining until Sunday night. We came prepared!! We had plenty of clothes that would keep up warm and dry. (My neighbor loaned me her ski pants/boots/shirt/jacket.) We were able to hike all around Unicoi and spend a bit of time in the little Alpine town of Helen that was just 2 miles away from Unicoi.
We started Saturday off with bacon, eggs, grits and toast for breakfast. For Tom's 50th birthday, I subscribed him to six months of the Bacon-of-the-Month Club. We had two months of bacon (two packages) to cook and eat for the weekend. That was fun. We all love bacon. Oink, oink. After getting our fill, we dressed in our warm rain clothes and headed up to the lodge where the annual Arts and Crafts Show was going on. We spent some time walking from booth to booth admiring all the handywork of regional artists. Very fun. We did purchase a Christmas ornament from the gift shop to remind us of our trip to Unicoi. We headed back to the cabin for a quick snack and then loaded up the car for the short drive up to Anna Ruby Falls visitor center where we'd take a .5 mile hike up to the falls.
These are the falls. The rare double waterfall is formed by Curtis and York Creek from Tray Mountain which is behind Anna Ruby Falls.
Anna Ruby Falls was not on our original to-do list. I'm glad it rained, otherwise we would have missed this treasure. It was a beautiful hike in the rain. We bought another Christmas Ornament of the falls as a keepsake.
Since I had planned that we would eat lunches out (because we would be driving around lunch time and supposed to be snow tubing), we decided we would take the short two mile drive into Helen, GA, and have lunch there. The girl at the visitor's center at Anna Ruby Falls suggested we eat at Restaurent International, so we did. It was tasty. We then walked over to the touristy town part and went into the Hansel and Gretel candy store and bought 3 slabs of fudge. Too good. All this time, it was raining. We didn't last long in Helen. We decided to drive back to the cabin, and have dad get the fire going again. We napped and read.
Helen, Georgia
Dinner that night was Chili. I had already cooked it at home and brought it up frozen. All I needed to do was reheat the chili, chop the onion and open the bag of cheese and bag of corn chips. Voila! Dinner!
A highlight of the weekend for me was that the kids cleaned the kitchen after each meal! Thanks, kids.
Our family, much to my children's chagrin, is not the electronics kind of family. No DS's, cell phones, ipods, laptops etc. So when we're traveling, it's books and games. Good, quality family time. The games we played while at Unicoi were: Charoodles (a charades game with props), Spoons, Kemps (a Spoons-like game), Dutch Blitz, Cranium Conga, Life, Solitare. Everyone brought books to read. I brought The Pioneer Women Cookbook. I highly recommend it. Lots of easy, scrumptious recipes. (The chili I brought was one of her recipes.)
Monday morning we got up, had pancakes and bacon for breakfast, loaded up the car, took a short little hike around part of the lake and then came on home. Tom had a conference call looming...bummer...it was a last minute kind of thing. Didn't know about it until Friday.
We ask ourselves, "Why don't we do this kind of thing once a month or so?" Maybe we will.
I'm hoping you'll get an email or some notice that there is a comment on this older post of yours. My family is staying in the same type of cabin you stayed in, when we vacation over Christmas week this year. There aren't many pictures of the insides of the cabins online anywhere. I'm hoping you could answer a couple questions and maybe if I'm lucky have some other photos of the insides. I know I can call and ask the park staff, but I think the perspective of a guest would be more helpful. My family is my husband and I and our four teenage daughters-19, 17, 16 and 14. We've stayed in several other GA state park cabins over the years, but this will be our first trip to Unicoi. Did you feel there was enough seating for your family, both at the dinner table and in the living room? With ours being one person larger, would you recommend we bring some folding chairs? I'm hoping to not have anyone have to sit on the floor at any point. Also, I think I read in an (old) review somewhere that the bathroom only has a tub, not a shower? Was that the case for you? Did you feel cramped or just snug? Did you find there were any kitchen items unavailable that you expected would be there? We will be there a full week and plan to cook in almost all meals. It's been a few years and I can't remember if there will be enough dishes and cutlery for us all, muffin pans, more than one fry pan, etc. In case it's helpful to you, we've stayed in and loved Fort Mountain, Cloudland Canyon and Amicalola Falls state park cottages. All are beautiful parks to visit and stay in, ranking probably Amicalola first, Cloudland second and Fort Mountain third. Any info you can provide would be helpful I'm sure. Many thanks in advance!
ReplyDeleteHi Melissa,
DeleteHere's what we remember-- (still looking for that video)
We had a two bedroom. One room had double beds, our 2 girls shared one bed, our son in the other. I remember it seeming smallish and glad our kids were the sizes/ages they were. Tom and I in the other room that had one bed. That room seemed rather large. I bet we could have set up one of our cots in it and still had room.
I remember one bathroom downstairs with a shower. The light switch was in a weird place-maybe outside the door. I don't remember a second bathroom.
Kitchen- it was equipped with just enough. We were there for two nights. I would of brought disposable plates and cutlery if we were there longer. The only skillet was an 8inch (small) cast iron skillet. I wished for larger....bring one with you. We used the grill outside. You may want to bring specific pans as I recall only basic supplies. We made due for the two nights.
There was a large round table beside the kitchen. You will easily fit 6.
The living area was okay, on the small side. The fireplace was kind of tucked in the corner of our living room. Could be different in other cabins. You might want a folding chair or two. We moved furniture around. There was a small deck off the living area. Would have been nice if not raining.
We enjoyed our rainy couple of days at Unicoi. Nice hiking trails. We might have hiked on in to Helen if it wasn't so rainy. The Unicoi Lodge had a craft show going on while we were there. It was fun to go over to the lodge.
Our cabin was at the bottom of a group of cabins. Lots of transporting up and down. Good exercise.
The two level living was fun and different for us.
We have stayed at cabins at Vogel and FDR. We liked them better. They were CCC built (charming) and we could park right beside. We've tent camped at both, too. FDR is near Calloway Gardens, that's fun.
We will be staying at Cloudland Canyon in February.
Have fun. I hope it's sunny for you.