The Chestatee River gets its name from the Cherokee word "Tsistu-yi" meaning "land of the dancing  rabbits" or "the rabbit place".

A trip down the peaceful Chestatee River in Dahlonega, GA. This was our first river kayaking adventure.  We rented two Malibu II XL, tandem, sit-on top kayaks from the highly recommended, friendly, reasonable and responsible Appalachian Outfitters (AO) out of Dahlonega, GA.  The trip had a couple of turbulent areas which made us want more "rapids".  The trip began at the base area for the AO and continued down the Chestatee River for approximately three hours. 

We stopped along the way to explore small tributaries, some paths along the river and to have a great picnic lunch on a sandy little spot about half way down.  We received a very thorough preparatory brief about the river and kayak paddling before we left so we were well prepared for the day.  The entire trip including lunch and gas was under $100 dollars for a day the family will always remember.  The trip was great but left us wanting more time on the river and bigger, harder class three rapids.  And more is what we got when we traveled back to the AO to ride the Etowah River.

Another adventure along the Chestatee River offered by Appalachian Outfitters is river tubing...we will be trying this in July.  Some pictures of other families enjoying the river are below.