Blue Ridge Foothills: Chimney Rock, Lake Lure & More
Chimney Rock – www.chimneyrockpark.com, 1-800-277-9611
Continue your adventure with a scenic drive to Chimney Rock at Chimney Rock State Park where you can reconnect with nature. Stand atop the 315-foot Chimney Rock and see amazing 75-mile views of Hickory Nut Gorge, Lake Lure and the Carolina Piedmont. Down below is the kind of scenery you’ll find in The Last of the Mohicans, including the unforgettable final scenes filmed at the edge of 404-foot Hickory Nut Falls.
Lake Lure – www.rutherfordtourism.com, 1-800-849-5998
Just below Chimney Rock, relax on a boat tour of Lake Lure, or on the sandy beach by the Lake Lure Inn, a restored grand hotel of the 1920s. The scenery around here also made it in the movies as the romantic backdrop for Dirty Dancing. Visit Bennett’s Classic Cars Museum or the Rutherford County Farm Museum.
Black Mountain and Swannanoa Valley – www.exploreblackmountain.com, 1-800-669-2301
Head 23 miles north on US 9 to the Swannanoa Valley Museum, which preserves and interprets the social, cultural and natural history of the Swannanoa Valley, a pathway to Western North Carolina. Stroll through the quaint streets of Black Mountain and stop in some of the shops and galleries before heading back to Charlotte on I-40 East.
