The new 65-foot tall, ‘Sky Slide’ at the Mountain Lake Lodge is said to be the highest on the east coast. As Robbie Harris reports, it’s also the latest attraction in a plan to make the New River Valley mountain getaway a natural adventure park, while at the same time, preserving its historic character.
The main attraction here used to be the lake, surrounded by cabins, a 1930s lodge, and tall mountains that were the stand-in for the Catskills 30 years ago when the movie Dirty Dancing was filmed here.
Now that the lake has become a shallower version of itself, a new kind of water feature here aims to raise the profile of the resort’s adventuresome side.
Josef Keofer is Marketing Manager at Mountain Lake. He describes the slide, "you’re literally at the highest point at Mountain Lake right now out of the entire 2600 acre property. We’re at the highest point on the mountain and the Sky Slide is making it even higher so you’re going to get a skyline view from the top of the Sky Slide as you’re going down.”
But a lot of people keep their eyes closed, at least on the first plunge down this very vertical slide. After that, they say the fear to turns to thrills.
8-year-old Abby Mercier says, “It’s very scary! But I’m willing to do it!
She and her family are from New Jersey. They’re here for a family wedding at Mountain Lake Lodge. You can hear her ‘woo-woo’ as she speeds down the slide. There’s a side with no water for conventional sliders and a faster one with water for the glide. She did that one.
“Awesome! Scale of 1 to 10? 10!"
The Sky Slide at Mountain Lake Lodge is open every day this summer and you don’t have to be a guest at the hotel to ride it.