A Fall Walk Around Lake Lure.

Heading to Lake Lure in late October was my fourth failed attempt over the past year to see stunning fall colors in the North Carolina mountains.  Since we are fortunate to live just one and a half hours drive from the internationally known Lake Lure, I will have plenty of chances to keep trying (it’s certainly a great excuse to road trip into the gorgeous western North Carolina region).  And, even though the leaves weren’t on fire, the walk was still wonderful.

Lake Lure is often described as one of the most beautiful man-made lakes in the USA.  It’s widely known thanks to its beauty but also because of the various movies that have filmed scenes here – including Dirty Dancing.  (In fact, there is an annual Dirty Dancing festival held at the lake.)  The lake was formed in 1927 when the Rocky Broad River was dammed to create a hydroelectric power plant.  Today the dam is still operational but is primarily used to maintain water levels, as the lake has provided a booming tourism and recreation industry for the Town of Lake Lure.

 

 

Arriving at the lake via Highway 74 was a really neat experience.  The road descended and an expansive view of the lake below opened up.  It reminded me of driving to the beach as a kid because – for a moment – all I saw was the road leading to a horizon of water.

We drove to the spacious parking lot at the visitor’s center.  There are bathrooms inside – so you’ll need to check the hours – and they were open on the Sunday we visited (which is impressive in the south).  We started our walk by heading to the boardwalk over the water.  I love a good boardwalk.  This one was wide, in good shape, and – most importantly – provided great views.

 

 

Across the lake there’s a lovely gazebo, which you can access on another path.

 

 

From the walk we could see the granite cliffs and lush forested areas that make the Lake Lure region such a desirable area to visit.  We also had a good view of Chimney Rock (a 315 foot tall rock jutting into the sky like a chimney) at several points.

Boat tours are a favorite activity for many visiting Lake Lure.  It’s a big enough lake (720 acres with 27 miles of shoreline) that the tour may be worth it, but the people we observed on the returning boats didn’t look all that pleased.  Perhaps that was due to the big canvas covers across the top of the tour boats that seemed to block the main views for the people seated in the middle.  If you really want to boat around Lake Lure you might want to consider a private tour by a local instead.

 

 

It was very sunny and a bit chilly when we visited.  We safeguarded sleepy Baby Meena (who was five months old at the time) from the sun and cold as best we could.

 

 

I have lupus photosensitivity, which means that even small amounts of sun exposure can make me very sick, so I wore my sun hat, long sleeves, and copious amounts of sunscreen.

 

 

We took that photo on a set of piers; there were five or six piers jutting out into the lake which made for lovely photo opportunities.

The boardwalk portion of the path ended, and we continued on around the beach section of the park which had closed for the season already.  The beach looked like it would be great fun in the summer.  Then we walked through a lovely green space with picnic tables and ended up at a parking lot with this adorable chapel.

 

 

So picturesque.

We headed back to the parking lot, walked past the café and boat loading station, and onto another path.

 

 

This portion of the walk was lovely and there were lots of places to step aside and admire the lake.

In this next photo you can see the previously mentioned beach across the lake.

 

 

Of course we had to stop for a moment inside the gorgeous – and quite large – gazebo for this scenic view.

 

 

Lake Lure has one large area with deep water, three long bays, many small inlets throughout, and one seven acre island.  At the turning around point of the path, we watched the boats head off to explore the lake stretching off into the distance.

 

 

All in all we spent about an hour walking around Lake Lure – you could easily spend more time but I couldn’t be in the sun for too long and our baby couldn’t be in the cold for long either.

I could dedicate an entire post to all the other wonderful things to do in and around near Lake Lure.  Due to our late start that day things were getting very crowded by the time we were done walking.  We opted to visit a nearby winery with our limited time instead of sticking around to fight the crowds, but here are some of the things we recommend and plan to do when we return (earlier in the day, hopefully) next spring:

– Walk the flowering bridge when it’s overflowing with springtime flowers.

– Enjoy the Rocky Broad River Walk.

– Walk down main street in the village of Chimney Rock and pop into a few of the quirky stores.

– Take the elevator up to the top of Chimney Rock – which is located in a tunnel inside the mountain (how cool is that??) – and then walk down “nature’s Ultimate Stairmaster” if my knees allow it.

– Hike in the Rumbling Bald section of Chimney Rock State Park.

What would you prioritize or add to the list?  Feel free to share your thoughts about Lake Lure in the comments.

 

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