"The Last of the Mohicans"

Granpa surprised me last night with a copy of the movie, "The Last of the Mohicans."  It is one of my favorite movies of all time.  (Have I mentioned that before?)  The story is awesome - based on James Fenimore Cooper's "Leatherstocking Saga" - and the location it was filmed in is truly awesome.  Even though we've seen the movie several times (the 1992 version with Daniel Day-Lewis),
the two hours seemed like ten minutes.  That's how enthralling the movie is!

Throughout the movie, when the most spectacular scenery is on display, we muse about where it might have been shot.  Granpa is pretty convinced it's in the northwest, somewhere out the west side of Glacier International Peace Park.  I opine that the upper northeast has the same type of scenery, but he's never been there so he sticks with the northwest.

Then I think maybe it was filmed in Canada, maybe British Columbia, because Hollywood started going up there to save money in the making.  Silly me, instead of wondering - ask Google.  So I typed in, "Where was the "Last of the Mohicans" filmed?"  GOOD GRIEF!  I absolutely do NOT believe it!  It was filmed in NORTH CAROLINA!  We are five miles from the North Carolina stateline!  Can anyone say, ROAD TRIP !!!

A little more research and we discover it was filmed in and around Chimney Rock State Park which is south and a bit east of Asheville, North Carolina.  (Remember Asheville?  Where the Biltmore Mansion is?  See our earlier posts on the Biltmore.) The last 17 minutes of the movie was filmed in the Park, other scenes were filmed in places like Hickory Nut Flats and the former Carson City as well as several other places in the western part of North Carolina.  I'm thinking this road trip will have to be a two-nighter!

Once I discover that it was filmed in North Carolina (and the movie is over) I can't get Granpa off of his new tablet.  He's researching the whole road trip.  He wonders out loud if I can manage an hour of mountain climbing.  (This whole dehydration thing that goes along with Sojgren's Disease is kicking my fanny!  I've all but given up on drinking my precious hot tea because it's a diuretic, and I drink bottled water by the case.  But I still dehydrate so fast that his question is a good, valid question.)  I am up for giving it a shot as long as he's willing to carry a backpack full of bottled water...

And so next weekend is set.  Now, where can I get some leather stockings?