Secret hideaways within bustling well-known destinations trigger the best vacations. I found one in a North Georgia valley just four miles from pumping, crowded Helen.

Two nights — or more if time permits — in a mountaintop inn with 365 degree views only of other mountains.

Dinner and breakfast served on the porch with hummingbirds and at least 11 kinds of song birds to keep you company. Plentiful east-facing windows in the Craftsman-style dining room keep the view abundant if the porch is cold.

A half-mile nature hike in the back yard with lots of ups and downs, and then luxurious sleep on a Sealy Crown Jewel posturepedic mattress.

Not enough to slip off the overpopulated beaten path? Add in the day spa connected to the inn by a covered walkway, with a gazebo and bubbling stream of cold mountain water supporting a koi pond on the way.

Plus, the road to and from this mountain top connects in less than a mile to a world-class folk pottery museum, two groupings of small shops for puttering around and a community association which presents fine theater and music, preserves historic buildings and honors the history of this place.

Sautee Nacoochee. That’s the place. Discover the charm before too much of the Bavarian-seeking Helen traffic drops in.

You’ll be in the foothills of Georgia’s Blue Ridge. Traders, explorers, Native Americans and people seeking new lives traveled this valley for centuries. The headwaters of the Chattahoochee River are just north of here and the river runs right through the valley on its way to the Gulf.

Those waters are gaining new fame, thanks to the July premier of Headwaters: Stories from a Goodly Portion of Beautiful Northeast Georgia. The production brings to life real stories collected in this valley and six neighboring counties, scripted and directed by theater professionals and certain to re-appear next summer.

The performers are, as they say in these parts, “from around here.” Think Swamp Gravy and you’ll know this show is important.

Branch out from Sautee Nacoochee only if you must and visit Helen, Hiawassee and Clayton, Georgia. Adopt a Cabbage Patch baby in nearby Cleveland. Pick up the Scenic Highway 197 brochure and check out the sights.

Or stay put in Sautee Nacoochee and refresh yourself. That’s my main advice. So many gems to discover in just a few connected miles, and so much rocking on the porch.

Lucille and George Hlavenka set the tone at Lucille’s Mountain Top Inn in the Sautee part of these valleys. They’re relaxed, and friendly in a gentle sort of way. Leave your shoes in your room if you like; Lucille does.

The crisp lines and high ceilings of the nine bedroom Craftsman style inn told me right away this was no lace-doily bed-and-breakfast experience.

The strength of the Trey and Chimney mountains which you see through the abundant windows is matched in this 6-year old inn. George is the architect, responsible for the design of many churches, retirement communities, schools, banks and government buildings. He looked skilled with weed-eater too the day I was there.

Lucille teams up with caterer Trissy Beall, trained in culinary school in Japan, to prepare breakfast every day and dinner when you order ahead. Candlelight in your room or mountain light on the porch: Your choice.

Cheesecake surpassing the best was served when we returned at 11 p.m. from Headwaters, with coffee and herbal tea readily available too.

I stretched my muscles on the nature trail right off the back meadow on this 5.5-acre site, a stiff hike, not a meandering path. Croquet on the lawn is nice too.

The others at breakfast headed to the Mandala spa next door. Familiar massage therapies and facials fill the agenda and so do yoga, tai chi and private counseling.

Linda Davis is in charge and she’s a licensed clinical social worker, hypnotherapist and lots more. That means this place is perfect for healing, not just from road rage getting through Atlanta, but from depression, anxiety, panic attacks and unresolved hurts. Stop-smoking clinics happen on this mountain top too.

I talked to Davis about returning for Monday gatherings: ancient Chinese healing exercises known as qigong at 5 p.m., then a vegetarian supper topped off with meditation.

Not for everybody, I realize, but there’s trout fishing and tubing nearby for the others. In fact, four fishermen from Ohio come three times a year to Lucille’s to fly fish.

There’s pottery in Sautee Nacoochee. Plenty of it. Ancient pieces and historic processes. Brand new patented ways of making vessels, too.

Start with the Folk Pottery Museum, which celebrates its first anniversary in September with a one-year exhibit of North Carolina pottery.

The permanent collection of 150 pieces in a light, airy building includes the famous face jugs, wonderful large photos of pottery-making families now teaching great grandchildren to turn and fire and a nine minute video showing the local Meaders family digging clay, shaping vessels on a treadle wheel and finishing them with humble glazes of ash and glass shards.

These are practical pots, and the men and women whose families have made them for nearly 200 years are still making pots to use, even as collectors buy folk pottery pieces once considered essential household items.

Garden ware is needed now more than butter churns or poultry fountains and the great grandfather in the Hewell pottery family turns out 100 garden pots every day.

A little bit of folk pottery is for sale in the Museum; a lot of studio pottery is for sale in the next-door Sautee Nacoochee Center gallery. Some of each is now at my house.

Ask for the Folk Potters Trail brochure to hunt up even more. Then turn on Georgia Highway 384 just three miles south of the Museum to find The Gourd Place.

Don’t expect craft-fair painted gourds, although you can buy some plain ones for $2 to paint yourself. Expect pottery.

Priscilla Wilson just received a patent for the process she calls “turning gourds inside out so the unseen organic textures are revealed on the outside of the pot.” They are quite handsome.

Her collection of Native American gourds and beauties from Nigeria, Mali, Zaire, Senegal, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico and Portugal extends down a hallway from the main display while a separate building out back offers more traditional decorated gourds.

With a 10-minute walk around the lake, and lively conversations with Wilson and her business partner Janice Lymburner, both former teachers, The Gourd Place is a good connection to Sautee Nacoochee.

Thomas N. Lumsden connects you too, if you’re lucky enough to visit the history museum any third Saturday. That’s his day there. Dr. Lumsden is the visionary who collected the artifacts representing what he calls these “old valleys” and his delight with each story is evident.

The grandson of a Confederate soldier, he’s a retired family physician, and claims to be grandfather to all the Cabbage Patch babies “born” at Babyland General Hospital in nearby Cleveland since he attended the birth of Xavier Roberts, creator of the dolls.

A soapstone bowl dating back to 7000 BC and stone projectile points — which he’s quick to point out are older than arrowheads — are every bit as significant a part of the valley history as Confederate rifles and a railroad display recalling the logging trains when the local mill processed 125,000 board feet in a day.

“Nacoochee started as a game trail,” Dr. Lumsden notes, “and became an Indian path, trade route, pioneer road and highway. Animal herds, pack train captains, British and Colonial soldiers, gold miners and lumberjacks all passed through.

“Nacoochee changes yet with it all retains much of its native charm and beauty,” Dr. Lumsden believes.

Overlooking the Nacoochee Valley is a Heritage Site and Nature Preserve in development to interpret the history of slavery from the African American perspective

The Bean Creek History Project is preserving one of the few slave dwellings known to exist in Georgia, a 16-by-28 foot cabin. Remember George Hlavenka at Lucille’s Mountain Top Inn? He’s the architect for this project, too.

The Old Sautee Store — just up the street from the Sautee Nacoochee Community Center with the Folk Pottery Museum, history museum, art gallery and gymnasium-turned-200-seat theater – opened in 1872 and still sells things you might need; breakfast and lunch are available here too with fresh baked breads.

History propels the sales at the Nora Mill Granary too, around the next corner but still in tiny Sautee Nacoochee. Ten grain cereals, flaxseeds, stone ground grits, pancake flours and more are here, plus equipment to cook it all.

Habersham winery across the street showcases Georgia’s expanding wine industry, taking historic operations into a new age and in that same little complex on South Main Street, which doubles as state Highway 75, antiques spill over in a three- story building.

And that’s not everything in tiny Sautee Nacoochee. Better stay another night.