The Georgia Mountain Coaster is Georgia’s first and currently only mountain coaster. This may be the first mountain coaster in Georgia, but it will have everything you love about mountain coasters in areas where they are more commonplace, like Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. What makes this coaster special is location location location. It is located in the heart of Helen, Georgia, a popular German themed tourist destination in Northern Georgia and it’s LITERALLY on Main Street. You can easily walk to it from all the popular shops and restaurants and it’s the only pedestrian accessible coaster I know of other than Ripley’s Mountain Coaster in downtown Gatlinburg, Tennessee. However, even though it’s very close to everything, when you’re up on the hill it still feels quiet and isolated.

The coaster is easy to find with signs everywhere including a cool looking one with a real sled and a piece of track. It dose have its own dedicated parking lot, but you can also park anywhere in downtown Helen and easily walk to it. The coaster is built on a hill, as you’d expect, so there are some stairs from Main Street Helen up to the ticket booth and station, but you can avoid these by parking at the coaster itself.

If you look at the Google map below you can see there’s a lot of tree cover on the course, so you can’t see much track from the station and most of the course will be a mystery to you until you ride. This coaster is also made by the German mountain coaster company Wiegand. I’d imagine the Wiegand engineers had a lot of fun with this one being that Helen, GA is known for its German theme and German restaurants.

The station and ticket sales are located adjacent to the parking at the base of the hill. Tickets are $17 for adults and $10-$14 for kids with a 2nd ride being half off. The station here is quite beautiful being right on the edge of the woods. This is also my favorite type of configuration with the station being at the base of the hill. Many mountain coasters start at the top of the course which unfortunately means they end with a several minute anti-climatic climb back to the station. This is often something the designers can’t control based upon location, but from my experience lift and then course finishing into the station by is the far superior configuration.

In the station you’ll go through the standard safety briefing and then you’ll be off on an ~2 minute climb to the top of the hill. The lift hill here is one of the faster ones I’ve ridden that builds the anticipation nicely. You’ll pass a couple of control buildings, do a 180 degree turn and you’ll be off and flying. The opening of the ride fast with several s-turns and 180 degree turns. There are several straight or relatively straight sections of track where you really get a great sensation of speed. As continue to wind down the hill a little after halfway you’ll reach the rides best moment which is a beautiful helix. A few small turns and another straight section and you’ll pop out of the woods into a 180 degree turn into the station to end the ride. This is a relatively short mountain coaster in terms of ride time, but it packs a lot of punch. The unload area is a unique design with essentially a separate exit station going the opposite direction you departed and a “turnaround” piece of track after the rider exit to complete the circuit.

Before or after your ride you can also enjoy the rest of Helen, GA and grab an authentic German meal or beer or sit at a bar along the river. If you’re on a date you can place a “love lock” with your significant other (no longer on the bridge for safety reasons) or check out beautiful Anna Ruby Falls. If you want more adventure you can also take a tube ride down the Chattahoochee River that this area is famous for. Helen is under 2 hours from Atlanta, so if you find yourself in the area this is a perfect day trip or just dinner and a coaster ride.

Overall this is an excellent mountain coaster that fits perfectly in Helen, Georgia and could not be more convenient to all the other hotels, restaurants and attractions. It’s hard to believe this perfect piece of property for a mountain coaster has been sitting in downtown Helen for years. This coaster might not be long, but it is fun with the standout moment is definitely the helix. I also really appreciated the use of straight track here too as many mountain coasters feel like you’re constantly turning for no good reason. This probably won’t be the only mountain coaster in the North Georgia Mountains for very long, as there’s no reason they shouldn’t thrive here, but it’s going to take a lot to be better than The Georgia Mountain Coaster.