Did you know that the lake featured in the iconic Dirty Dancing scene—when Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey practice the famous lift—was almost devoid of all water for 12 years? To be specific, it was actually completely dry between 2008 and 2012. But, as of this month, Mountain Lake Lodge in Virginia is slowly filling up again—and people have noticed.
Interestingly enough, the natural wonder benefits from its own self-cleaning cycle which allows it to completely drain every 400 years. However, since the 1987 movie, scientists have worked on restoring actual holes in the lakebed that have caused excessive leakage. The issues have finally been fixed.
"This lake basin is the only one on the planet that goes through this sort of cyclicity and has this sort of plumbing system and sometimes mysteriously disappears to 'self-clean,'" says Jon Cawley, a professor at Roanoke College, in a video on the Mountain Lake Hotel website, also a set for the original movie. "When the lake drains—when it actually empties out—it cleans itself by moving sediment that has accrued in the bottom of the lake down through that rather complex plumbing system to actually make the lake bigger, deeper and keep it clean."
So excited are businesses surrounding the destination that the Mountain Lake Lodge is actually offering Dirty Dancing-themed weekend packages in 2021 that include film-related scavenger hunts, trivia nights, group and private dance lessons and, of course, the chance to re-enact the most famous dance lift in cinematic history. Ready to book?
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