we're 10+ hrs west of you, but go there a good bit and love the area. you are pretty close to amicalola state park which is pretty nice and has camp sites with heated bath houses which might be nice introducing the family to the outdoors with a few creature comforts and then then gradually getting more into boondocking. a few miles east of the falls is hwy 52 going to nimblewell and there is a dirt road called nimblewell that goes way back in the woods and has a few primative camp areas along the way. i went back thru there a few months ago in my lifted tundra with a cap on it and had a few tight areas to get under fallen trees, but it was a pretty fun drive and did require 4wd a good bit since it had rained. muddy and fun, but not too crazy.
we also go to the helen area and love it. vogel state park is awesome and there are a lot of hikes in the area and east of vogel on hwy 180 is an area with primative camping right on the creek....think its called sosebee. helen is nice for kids because they have a few amusement things in the area for them, tubing, and stuff like that. lots of great camping and hiking all around vogel and vogel also has nice heated bath houses so you can at least get a good hot shower before going to bed.
i have a thread with pics from our last trip there...
The wife and I camped at Cloudland state park this time last year and really enjoyed it. We are leaving in a couple days to go explore more of north Georgia and the wife is really wanting to see more waterfalls and do some hiking. I ended up getting a pretty good map of north Georgia which...
www.overlandbound.com