It didn’t take long after arriving at Mountain Lake Lodge in Pembroke, Virginia, to realize that despite the resort’s name, it has no lake. What it does offer guests is a long and varied list of activities and appeals that can fill many a day. Then there’s that not-so-secret reason why many people go there: Most of the popular 1987 motion picture “Dirty Dancing,” which supposedly took place at a vacation retreat in New York’s Catskill Mountains, was filmed at the Virginia property.
Taking advantage of the almost cultlike following the motion picture spawned, Mountain Lake Lodge stages a series of special weekends focused on the film. During our recent visit, my wife, Fyllis, and I combined an immersion in the movie’s mystique with a sampling of other things to do and see on the resort’s 2,600-acre spread.
