Spring Wildflowers

Helen sits at about 1,440 feet, with mountains climbing to nearly 4,800 feet within an hour's drive, so the bloom here doesn't happen all at once. It rolls uphill through spring, which gives you months of chances. The National Park Service describes the same pattern in the nearby Great Smokies, and the species are largely the same ones you'll find in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest.

Exact timing shifts a week or two with the weather each year.

The first flowers race to bloom before the trees leaf out and shade them. Bloodroot opens a single white flower on a slender stalk, trout lily spreads yellow blooms over mottled leaves on moist stream banks, and Dutchman's breeches hangs its pantaloon-shaped flowers from arching stems. By April, trilliums carpet shaded coves, and dogwood bracts show white against still-bare woods. The Park Service puts the Smokies' overall spring peak in mid to late April at lower elevations.

Once the canopy closes, the show moves to the shrubs. Mountain laurel's geometric cup-shaped flowers run from white to deep pink and can cover a whole ridge. Rosebay rhododendron follows with big clusters of white to pale pink; where it lines a creek, as along the Anna Ruby Falls and Raven Cliff Falls trails, you walk through tunnels of leaves and flowers. Catawba rhododendron, which grows higher up, has purple-pink blooms and, according to the Park Service, peaks in June above 3,500 feet.

For a deeper bloom-chasing plan, including Sosebee Cove, see our wildflower guide. Smithgall Woods details are on Georgia State Parks.

Overcast days give soft, even light that keeps white petals from blowing out. Get down at flower level for close-ups, and use a wider frame for laurel and rhododendron so the shrub shows in its setting, with a creek or waterfall behind it if you can. Stay on the trail: the best shots almost always work without stepping into the plants.