When I saw a friend’s Facebook post about her husband’s surprise anniversary trip to Mountain Lake Lodge, where they filmed Dirtyy Dancing, I wanted to go.
“Can it be my birthday pesent this year?” I asked Ron, squealing with delight when he said yes.
Because I had a women’s breakfast on my actual birthday weekend, I booked us for the only weekend we had available in September.
“We drive through Farmville,” Ron said about an hour into our drive. Knowing that, I couldn’t help but want to do lunch at one of my favorite places, Charlie’s
After driving the tree-lined, seven-mile, narrow, twisting mountain road, we arrived at Mountain Lake Lodge just before 5:30. Driving through the iconic tunnel from the movie, we quickly learned that Johnny, a.k.a. a. Patrick Swayze, drove through the one-way road the wrong way in the movie.
He didn’t drive the car at all. They rented it from a local resident who drove the car through the tunnel.
The iconic stone lodge loomed over the swimming pool and cottages. A bellboy took our bags to the room while we drove around the hotel to the parking area by Mary’s Event Venue and Kellerman’s gift shop.
After settling into our room, we had dinner at Harvest
The Harvest Restaurant (located inside the Stone Lodge at Mountain Lake Lodge in Pembroke, Virginia) served as the filming location for Kellerman’s main dining room scenes in Dirty Dancing. [1, 2, 3]
Specific scenes filmed in or around this dining area include:
- The Houseman Family Meals: General indoor dining and breakfast/dinner scenes featuring Baby and her family.
- Character Entrances & Observations: Moments where characters look into or navigate the main lodge dining room space (such as Baby looking into the dining room from the porch area outside). [1, 2, 3]
After dinner, we cozied up in bed and watched Dirty Dancing, wondering who stayed in our room during filming. I’m hoping Patrick Swayze’s presence did time in it. With no T.V. in the room, we watched the movie on the small screen, nestled between us.
After a good night’s sleep, I did a little writing while Ron slept, then looked for coffee. Ron woke up nauseous, so we skipped breakfast and did the walking tour of filming sites.
Recreating the scene where Baby tells her father he let her down, too. Jerry Orbach’s tears touched my heart.
Ron rested after our walk, his tummy still nauseous. After making notes for the blog, I went for a short walk on the Lake Loop Trail.
Which turned into a long walk, the trail not even on the map. Once again, I played in the mountains, climbing hills, walking through valleys, and defeating fear with every step.
Ron felt better by lunchtime, and we enjoyed another meal at Harvest. Sitting on the porch, Baby would have walked past us at the beginning of the movie when she peered into the dining room and glimpsed Johnny for the first time.
Grilled pimento cheese sandwich with fried green tomatoes melted in my mouth. Ron enjoyed the Farmhouse Club, a “favorite,” according to our waitress, Katie.
In our brief time with Katie, we learned about her wife, 8-year-old daughter, and two 4-year-old nieces, whom they raise. At only 28, she had a hysterectomy in July, ending her childbearing years.
After lunch, we walked to the Adventure Outfitters gift shop. Ron found a tee-shirt, and I bought a vest on clearance.
Back in our room, we rested until our next adventure: a Can-Am ride up the mountain.
Built in 1872, the lodge was a stagecoach stop. People took the train to Christiansburg, then rode 6 hours to here, with their final destination, Salt Sulfur Springs, another 4-hour ride.
Cottages were built to solve the problem of having the lodge having no private bathrooms. People shared three indoor bathrooms, but aoon tired of having to share.
They conned people to biold the cottages for $1550 dollars in 1903, which would now cost $30,000-$40,000. They had no kitchens and were not allowed any food in cottages to force people to eat in the dining room. They owned the cottage for 15 years and then they became rentals, now all owned by the lodge.
Valley View Cottage was built by W. L. Moody, one of the top 100 richest men in the country. In 1929, they bought the whole place to save it during the Great Depression. His daughter, Mary, ran it until she died, two months before Dirty Dancing was filmed. She set it up as a conservatory because she had no heirs, preserving the property with an endowment for upkeep.
Farmers hiked a mile to the top and pushed 2 flat stones down wooden slats to build the lodge in 21 months. They got paid. 15 cents per hour. Cost $35,000 to build the lodge. The Can-Am we rode in cost $40,000. The mountain we rode on got 9 seconds of screen time when Kellerman greets the family at the beginning.
They built and cleared by hand a par three golf course at the too of the mountain with saws and horses. Lots of wild blueberries attract black bears toward the end of June.
The golf course didn’t make it because it was too dry. They built cisterns, but the springs ran dry, so it didn’t work. 4043 ft above sea level.
At the end of the golf course, Moody built a clubhouse, now a gun range and wedding venue. $5000 to rent for a wedding.
Behind the clubhouse, we encountered one of the most breathtaking views either of us has ever seen. On a beautiful, clear day as we had, you could see the mountains of NC and WV, one to the left, one to the right.
The boathouse had no alcohol; Moody didn’t believe in it. By the 1970s, they converted it into a three-bedroom cottage for rent. Eventually, water damage to the foundation was so severe that it became uninhabitable, and they had to close it. The cost to repair the structure runs in the 100s of thousands.
Every 200 years, the lake empties itself as a natural way to clean it. Before this emptying, it had remained full for 200 years. In 2006, when the lake emptied, they found the body of a man from Clemson University who had drowned in 1903, and they had never found his body before.
Originally a bowling alley, they built Baby’s cottage on the leftover platform. When the lake drained in 2006, they discovered where the workers had put the bowling pins.
Wrappinh up. the tour, we enjoyed drinks on the lawn, then had dinner in the bar. We met Vicky and Harry from Indiana and enjoyed a relaxing evening with them.
Back in the room, Ron watched Roadhouse, and I fell asleep. Sunday morning, we woke at 7:00, packed our bags, and got on the road home by 8:00.
A fun weekend getaway for all!