Our four days at Vogel State Park had a dearth of internet and TV but were compensated by some excellent attractions. The John C. Campbell Folk School is just an hour north of here over the North Carolina border in a beautiful mountain setting. They offer classes year round in Appalachian crafts and music, including pottery, knitting, black smithing and even kalaidescope making. The visitor's center, dining hall and gift shop, pictured here is surrounded by native plants.
A road leading off to the west gives access to studios for woodworking, pottery, quilting and fabric arts, and black smithing among others. In the other direction are buildings for book arts, woodturning, and painting. Interspersed is housing for students in diverse styles and a campground. Cooking classes include a variety if international flavors from rustic Italian to Korean, bread making, cooking with herbs, cast iron cooking and so on. Enameling? Rug making? Nature studies? Soap making? It's all here. Rand McNally calls the school one of the top 30 destinations in the US.
We timed our visit poorly and were there over the noon meal, so work was not going on in the studios. We returned to Georgia, had coffee at the Coffee Cabin in Blairsville (right on that tricky roundabout) and were back at the campground in time to hike around the lake and view Trahlyta Waterfall.
Finally, we ended the day with a campfire and grilled turkey tenderloins, the first time on this trip that the weather has been amenable for such activities. Today we head west to Lake Guntersville in Alabama.
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