**Note: The Clay County Recreational area have two different campgrounds. The Recreation Park and Gibson Cove. Today we are discussing Gibson Cove, which offers the lake views as opposed to the more wooded sites at the Recreation Park. You can request to book at either with the link below.

RECREATION PARK SITES | Campgrounds (claync.us)

 

www.atravelpath.com

 

Adrian and Ruth Social:

LIFE MEDIA PRODUCTIONS (rvlifeproductions.com)

RV Life with Adrian & Ruth - YouTube

RV lifeWithadrianruth (@rvlifewithadrianruth) • Instagram photos and videos

Adrian and Ruth (@rvlifewithadrianruth) | TikTok

So You Wanna GoFull Time RV NOW WHAT live series - YouTube

Ruth • RV Life • Esthetician (@thervesthetician) • Instagram photos and videos

 

In today’s episode of Travel Tips we welcomed back Adrian and Ruth from “RV Life with Adrian and Ruth!” In case you missed the first episode, check it out here:

https://sites.libsyn.com/491798/7-adrian-and-ruth

 

🔗Links

 

🏕️Clay County Recreation Park:

RECREATION PARK SITES | Campgrounds (claync.us)

Chatuge Dam Trail, North Carolina - 452 Reviews, Map | AllTrails

Adrian and Ruth’s video of the campground:

LAKE HIAWASSEE - LECTRIC BIKE REVIEW (youtube.com)

 

🏔️Helen, Georgia

Helen, Georgia - Georgia's Official Outdoor Destination (helenga.org)

Home - Georgia Mountain Coaster

 

*All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.

 

 

Transcript:

all right Adrian and Ruth thank you for joining hope and I for part two of the travel path podcast today we're talking about the travel tip segment so we talk about one destination before we begin we'll quickly go over part one in case you missed it if you want to tune into part one where Adrian and Ruth talked about how they balanc life on the road by working full-time and some of the emotional challenges they faced and getting on the road and if you're watching this on YouTube uh Ruth talks about an accident they both got into a little while ago where they were lucky they had their trailer hitch on the back of their truck so definitely tune into that one Adrian and Ruth thanks again and what are we talking about today so we are talking about one of our favorite campgrounds which is Clay County recreational park and is in North Carolina which is but is literally on the border of Georgia North Carolina so it's the hawasi area Lake haasi yeah but then on the North Carolina side it's called lake chatou so it gets a little a little confusing if you but if you put in Clay County wreck you'll find it you'll find it yes perfect and how many how much how much time have you guys spent there we've been there a bunch of times um not enough one of the first plac I wish I could be there now actually one of the first places we went camping to um and and she fell in love with it so um and I guess I I I affirmed it because I said to him you know I love this area I love this place here I don't want to leave I don't want to go back to FL South Florida I could see myself living here and little did I know that within a year and a half we actually would be um living in the area we're 30 minutes away from where we are right now so it's uh it's K came full circle which is weird it really did really did and we totally found it accidentally like we were looking for it was it was actually only one of the places that were available we were planning our trip our two week trip um with RV life and um it just came up as one of the places I had availability yeah and I saw that it was right on the water and I kind of like staying on the water and so we booked it and I was like oh my God I love this because it's literally you walk out of your RV 100 steps into the water y very cool now what type of amenities does this Campground have so it doesn't have a whole bunch of like a pool or anything like that but it's it's in a in a in a lake system that has a dam there's Trails there bike trails that are paved so you can ride your bike you can walk your dog you can you know there's fish go fishing um we like every once in a while to go up there and just rent a pontoon boat and just cruise around the lake and fish or the cool part with that is that if you know because you're camping on the water you can pull up the boat right up to your campsite have lunch and then go back out and the dam is right next to it literally within like walking or riding your bike distance and so that has a beautiful Trail to go also and take pictures um so it's just um really not a lot to do but it's somewhere where you want to go if you want to kind of be off grit and not look at your phone not answer your phone stay off social media be present if you really want to enjoy your family time or time together with your partner then you go there yeah it definitely sounds like an outdoor Enthusiast stream and it sounds like something we definitely want to get into so I know you guys have been there several times you can probably go there for weeks months at a time what would you say would be the minimum time frame somebody go there to get the full experience I would definitely not go for less than three days and even that you're going to be like I want to stay because just when you get comfortable and start enjoying your you know watching the sunset being on the water or even being in the water because you could go into the water um you're going to not want to leave so I would say minimum of three days I mean you could most certainly I think you can do overnight camping there but you're not going to want to leave so yeah and the way it's cool because every camp Camp spot is literally they're staggered so you don't have like an RV in front of you they're kind of one every other one so even if you're on the back side there's between the two RVs there's this opening that you can see the lake which the first time we weren't right on the water but we still have water view yeah so it's a it's really nice so there's no bad bad spots no perfect and you said Son so is this is a really good spot for just sitting in your campsite and watching sunset and sunrise or for sure because it it's it's all facing west and they designed that well um where you know you can you can sit there and the cool thing is you know Georgia and and North Carolina there's a lot of red clay so the water on the lake the water kind of glows different because of the red clay so when you have that that Sunset coming down it it makes it glow and it looks like a sunset on the water and in the sky like it's all kind of reddish pink it's pretty cool is it seasonal it is seasonal it it's open from April until um October right right beginning of November it it does fill up quick because a lot of people want to go there so we we usually plan it out like a year in advance very good what's your favorite season to go we stayed here in April and we stay during the summer and I think September is yeah September because in the summer it gets also very hot here um April it was still kind of a little bit chilly um but in September it was still warm enough for you for um when he went to work I since I work from home I would still get in the water I would take honey for a walk I it was still warm enough to get into the water and still nice and cool at night but not too cool right April chili are we talking Connecticut chili or are we talking Georgia chili cuz those are two completely different chilies yeah I'm used I know the Connecticut chili um it gets it's a little warmer probably like 60s yeah that's cold for me remember she's a Florida girl so I'm a Floridian so that's cold for me-irt weather that's what he says too no I'm not a Florida girl but I'm right there with you 60s cold y so you obviously have honey so you take her with you so I assume this is a very kid and dog friendly Park yes definitely the first time the well one one of the times that we went she got actually out and we he chased her for an hour and a half and she finally got tired and jumped in the truck but every single camper was trying to get her enticing her with food and she would take the food and run cuz she's a runner and go to the next one and go to the she thought it was a game she was having the ball so I say she was getting treats everywhere you never know what going through when every trying to catch them yeah too funny that's great so obviously this is a campground what are we doing at night so there's not much to do at night besides you know fire which is my favorite thing I love putting a fire sitting out there and because there's very low light pollution you can see many more stars that you would anywhere else if you wanted like to go out to dinner or something you have to go kind of to the next town which would be Helen Georgia um and Helen looks like Germany in the middle of the mountains oh cool you can go um bowling there's tons of things you can do you know family friendly things you can do in the surrounding areas not too too far away Helen is cool because it's like I said it's like a little German Town there's there's beer there's October Fest in October you can find a lot of German restaurants um there's Sushi there if you want sushi there's we went I took it for a birthday ax throwing there ax throwing place so it's it's kind of tury in a way a little bit but there's a lot of cool stuff up there too but I think that's perfect for a family that's going away if they want to stay somewhere a little bit more remote for the week and enjoy you know the lake and the fires at night but then have that option to get out and let everyone walk around do some fun activities like axe throwing or you know visiting October Fest if it's an adult trip so I think that uh think that's there's there's also a lot of um waterfalls there's also a lot of surounding hiking trails in the surrounding areas um and and actually I have a back problem so we have found a lot that are very very short distance like within a half of mile a mile yeah um waterfalls waterfalls you can walk behind beautiful places all within a all within a 30 to 40 minute time my favorite thing about Helen there's a Mountain roller coaster and I never saw one of these things until I went there and it's literally a roller coaster that you get on the mountain on the top and you kind of go all the way down and then wow yeah that was cool so it's just gravity I think we had heard of the town of Helen pre it's a very small town right yes just like said middle of middle of the mountains and middle of nowhere but yeah that sounds like a really fun place to check out so you guys have a bigger rig but you've seen tent campers smaller RVs bigger than your RV I sure everything will fit this Camp around we've seen class A's all the way to tents the last time we stayed we had U our neighbors were tent camping they had their tent where they slept in then they had their you know like netted tent and kind like the kitchen area but all the kids had their tent to sleep in they use the same the same pad right they're usually all gravel so it's not dirt but it's it's uh yeah it's you know there's power and and water there so the the tent camping is but there are dumping stations and there's bathrooms and trash bins and stuff nice so super accessible for just about anyone at any camping level correct yep we talked about some food in Helen obviously we're in a state park there's no restaurants right in there so do you guys like to bring in a lot of stuff when you go and Grill and cook or is there a store close by that you like to go to there's good barbecue everywhere right because North Carolina Northern Georgia so there's a couple spots there I don't know their actual names barbecue barbecue is the staple food around in all this areas so you can get like 10 minutes down the road you can go place and it's pretty good I like to I like to grill out I like to cook I got a small Blackstone I have my my charcoal grill and then I have a little outdoor kitchen in the outside of my rig so between all that I can we cook usually when it's nice out we cook outside and we hang out outside my one of my favorite things to do is sausages um there's a brand of sausage I can't think of the name um they make them in Alabama and then I like making shish kebabs and trying different recipes of shish kebabs and I let them I say and you like to eat it right yeah Shob the sauce that's a nice simple meal very limited dishes which we like when we're camping so yeah good stuff yes yes and just sitting out there watching the Moon on the water because it is a beautiful yeah there's a chain of grocery stores called Publix and they have this uh bourbon marinated salmon so good and it's like to make a salad or you can eat it with rice or you delicious like it's so good good and you said that it was a pretty inexpensive Campground right so you have a little bit more on the F it's like $27 a night yeah you can't find a place like that not anymore that much and if someone were coming to this Campground and they had two complaints but not necessarily complaints things that they weren't prepared for what would those two things be not dumping their tanks and not having full hookups is one but there's a service you can call and they'll they'll come and you can they you know they'll they'll dump it for you and a lot of people have those little behind toeing little cart things but um but they have the servers that you can call and they'll come around to so that would be one and then internet they they have a decent internet for being in the middle of nowhere and actually the last time this last time we went we noticed that they had put more antenna up but when we first went there there was like kind of like yeah so non-existent kind of made you not go on your phone yes yes I take it even since it's a campground kind of out in the woods even if you have a starlink you're gonna have a hard time getting signal well it's funny because when we first got our Starling that's that's the first place we ever used it literally it came in literally yes I drove half hour home because I got the the notice that it was it was delivered we drove to our home base I picked it up drove back and then we set it up you know say you're right by the water it was opened enough and luckily where was had a point was perfect yeah it sounds like an amazing place is Clay County recreational Campground one last question we have and I feel like we'll get two separate answers here but what is one thing you simply cannot leave this Campground without doing not just the campground the park in general I would definitely venture out on the trail into like the woods because it leads to where the dam is and you just think go it's just another Dam but it's so beautiful and you can see out and there's an area where you can walk a walking trail so it's really pretty it's a really pretty um Trail so I would definitely do that Y and I would definitely try to get on the water yeah I was going to say more whether it's skiing or on a boat or yeah that's what I was going to say go kayaking go you know get in the water go fishing jump in the water it's usually for being up in the mountain you would think it's cold all the time but it actually warms up pretty good and it's not it's refreshing and not only that I will I will tell you I'm kind of a not like a water snob but coming from Florida and the beaches that are basically clear I don't like anywhere where you can't see your feet Y and this water's yeah and this water's pretty clear this water's pretty clear probably why I like it so much CU I can see my feet yeah I don't like walking like murky water not knowing what you're stepping on yeah

 

no well perfect thank you for sharing that I think this is definitely somewhere that we are going to put on our list of places to go on our next trip when you go there let us know and uh maybe we'll come camp we can meet you guys there we will yeah we're hopefully planning another southern trip in the next couple months here so we'll be in touch for sure but yeah Adrian and Ruth thanks again for coming on like I mentioned before if you haven't seen the first episode definitely check that one out too guys thank you thank you thank you for having us