Some links on our site may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.
Chimney Rock State Park, in Hickory Nut Gorge about 25 miles southeast of Asheville, North Carolina, is open. The elevator runs again, and the summit overlook is accessible. The park’s own site lists daily hours of 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with hiking until 7 p.m. Reservations are recommended, not required, on most days. A few trails are still closed from Hurricane Helene. Below the rock, Lake Lure refilled to full pool in May 2026, after nearly two years low, and the beach and boat tours are both running again on a limited schedule.
I’ve stood at the top of that rock, both by the stairs and by the elevator. The view down into the gorge, lake curling through the valley floor, is the reason to make the climb. South Florida has nothing like that drop — the closest I get at home is a highway overpass. Chimney Rock earns its name, too: a genuine chimney of stone off the cliff face, flag on top, walkway wrapped around the summit.
Quick facts
| Detail | What to know |
|---|---|
| Location | Hickory Nut Gorge, Rutherford County, NC |
| Distance from Asheville | About 25 miles southeast |
| Elevator | Operational, per chimneyrockpark.com |
| Park hours | Daily 8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; hiking until 7 p.m. |
| Admission | Adults $17, youth 5–15 $8, 4 and under free |
| Reservations | Recommended for busy weekends, not required |
| Closed trails | Weed Patch Mountain, Tunnel, Riverwalk; Eagle Rock closed |
| Hickory Nut Falls Trail | 1.4 miles round trip, moderate |
| Lake Lure | Refilled to full pool, May 2026 |
| Lake Lure Beach | Weekends currently; $12 adult admission |
| Filmed here | The Last of the Mohicans (1992), at Hickory Nut Falls |
Chimney Rock Hurricane Damage
Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina hard in late September 2024. Chimney Rock took a direct hit. Floodwater reached the elevator machinery, and the park lost its entrance bridge, per the park’s own updates from that fall. Chimney Rock Village, at the base, closed right along with it, for months. Once the NC Department of Transportation rebuilt a temporary entrance bridge, the park reopened, on June 27, 2025, according to NC State Parks’ own release. Even so, reservations were required just to get in the gate that first summer back.
By this season, that requirement had eased. Reservations are now recommended rather than required, mainly for holiday weekends, per the park’s current ticket page. Some pieces of the property are still working through repairs, though. A handful of trails remain closed. Meanwhile, the park’s own site still references ongoing storm recovery, without a full village-by-village timeline. Check current conditions before you go if you’re headed to the village itself rather than just the park, since that piece of the recovery moves on its own schedule.
Chimney Rock State Park
Chimney Rock State Park sits in Hickory Nut Gorge, a steep river gorge cut by the Rocky Broad River. It’s about 25 miles southeast of Asheville. Hickory Nut Gorge is genuinely one of the more dramatic landscapes in the Blue Ridge. Sheer granite walls, a valley floor barely wide enough for the road and the river to share, and Chimney Rock standing off the cliff face like a lone tower. Lake Lure sits at the gorge’s eastern end, so most visitors see both in a single day.
The park itself is a mix of state ownership and a private concession. Chimney Rock Management LLC runs the day-to-day visitor operation, ticketing and the elevator, while NC State Parks manages the broader trail network, along with Rumbling Bald, the climbing and hiking area on the north side of the gorge.
Chimney Rock Elevator
The elevator is running again. It’s listed as operational on the park’s own site this season, after Helene’s floodwater knocked it out in 2024 and technicians spent months on repairs. It carries visitors most of the way up through the rock, cutting out a steep set of stairs. That’s the reason the overlook works for people who couldn’t handle the climb. If you’d rather walk, the stairs are still there. Either way, you end up on the same platform at the top, flag overhead and a railing around the summit rock.
Chimney Rock Hours
The park’s own site lists it open daily, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with hiking allowed until 7 p.m. Gates close at 7 as well. Reservations are recommended, not required, for the busiest stretches. Think Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, July weekends, and the leaf season that runs from October into early November. Annual passholders skip the reservation step entirely.
Outside those peak windows, showing up without a reservation is fine. Fall gets genuinely crowded here, since the overlook doubles as one of the region’s better leaf-viewing spots. So if you’re coming in October, book ahead regardless of the day of the week.
Chimney Rock Tickets
Adult admission runs $17, per the park’s current ticket page. Youth ages 5 to 15 are $8. Kids 4 and under get in free, and there’s no separate senior rate listed. An annual pass is also sold, worth it if you’re planning more than two visits in a year. Ticket sales end before closing, so plan to arrive well ahead of 5:30 if you want real time inside. Otherwise, the walk to the elevator and back takes longer than most first-time visitors expect.
Hickory Nut Falls Trail
Hickory Nut Falls Trail is a 1.4-mile round trip, rated moderate. Expect a few uphill stretches, some rocky footing and a short run of stairs. It’s kid-friendly, per the park’s own trail page, but not flat. Most hikers take 45 minutes to an hour. It leads to the base of Hickory Nut Falls, a genuinely tall waterfall, on the same cliff face used for the climax of a movie shot here more than three decades ago, covered below.
NC State Parks currently lists several other trails as closed this season. Weed Patch Mountain, Tunnel and Riverwalk are shut, along with the Eagle Rock access point, until further notice. Still, Rumbling Bald, the day-use hiking and climbing area on the far side of the gorge, remains open.
Chimney Rock Subway
The tight passage people ask about by the wrong name is the Subway, on the Outcroppings Trail, the stair route to the summit that runs alongside the elevator. It’s grouped with the Grotto and Pulpit Rock, three features reopened together on that trail in 2015, per the park’s own site. Some visitors call a passage like this a “fat man’s squeeze,” but that name actually belongs to Rock City, the attraction on Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, a different park several hours west. Chimney Rock’s version goes by the Subway, a narrow gap between two slabs of rock, low enough that you duck and turn sideways to get through.
I didn’t get through it clean on my first try. Had to back out, drop my daypack, and go again at an angle. It’s a real squeeze, and if you’ve got broad shoulders, skip that stretch and take the elevator instead.
Chimney Rock Last of the Mohicans
The last 17 minutes of The Last of the Mohicans (1992) were filmed inside the park, according to the park’s own history page. That includes the climactic fight scene at the top of Hickory Nut Falls. It’s the reason a lot of casual visitors recognize this place by sight before they’ve ever set foot in it. Since the falls and the rock formations around them are unmistakably the same terrain you’ll walk through on the Hickory Nut Falls Trail, it’s worth knowing going in. The spot people stop to photograph most isn’t the summit overlook. It’s the falls themselves.
I’ve walked that trail down to the falls myself, past the same ground the film crew worked more than three decades ago, and it holds up well past the movie trivia. The forest closes in fast on the way in, but near the trailhead you get a clear look back through the gorge at Lake Lure, catching the water below before the canopy takes over for the rest of the walk. It’s a lower, closer view than the one from the summit, and worth doing on the same visit as the climb.
Chimney Rock to Lake Lure
Lake Lure sits at the base of the gorge, a few minutes’ drive from the park entrance. It’s the lake Chimney Rock looks down on from the summit overlook. The two make an easy pairing, so most people visit both the same day rather than picking one. The lake itself is man-made, built in the 1920s by damming the Rocky Broad River. It wraps around the base of the mountains in a shape that reads almost like a river from above. The town of Lake Lure sits right on the water. Both the Lake Lure Inn and the public beach front the same stretch of shoreline visible from the top of Chimney Rock.
Is Lake Lure Open?
Yes. The lake reached full pool again in May 2026, according to the Town of Lake Lure, after refilling began that February. It was the first time full since Hurricane Helene lowered it in September 2024, nearly two years earlier. That refill was the biggest recovery milestone for the whole area, since boating, the beach and the marina all needed the lake back before any of them could reopen properly. All three have since followed.
Lake Lure Beach
Lake Lure Beach & Water Park charges $12 for adults, per Lake Lure Tours, the operator. Seniors are $9, and children ages 4 to 12 are $8, with kids under 4 free. A separate adventure course runs $10 for ages 7 and up and $5 for ages 4 to 6. As of September 2026, per the operator’s own site, the beach is open weekends only, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., the tail end of a schedule that ran daily through much of the summer. It’s a cashless operation, so bring a card. Lifeguards are on duty during operating hours.
Lake Lure Boat Tours
Lake Lure Tours is running guided boat tours again, currently based out of Lake Lure Beach rather than the usual home at Washburn Marina. The marina itself reopened in July 2026, per the Town of Lake Lure, after 22 months of repairs. Its docks are now reserved for the tour operator as it shifts operations back. Day slips are available there too. A handful of free short-stay slips and a few daily rentals, with a multi-day minimum, are aimed at boaters passing through rather than long-term dockage. Call ahead this season if you want a specific tour time or boat, since the operation is still mid-move between two locations.
Things to Do in Lake Lure
Beyond the beach and the boat tours, Lake Lure works as a good base for exploring the rest of Hickory Nut Gorge. Kayak and paddleboard rentals run alongside the tour operation. Several restaurants along Memorial Highway look straight out over the water. This whole corridor connects to some of the best waterfall country in the East. Sliding Rock is about 45 minutes southwest, near Brevard. The Pretty Place chapel and Rainbow Falls hike sit roughly an hour south, near the South Carolina line. Oconee State Park, with its own two lakes, works as an overnight stop on the same loop. None of these places are officially connected to Chimney Rock or Lake Lure. They just sit close enough together to string into one trip through the mountains.
Restaurants Near Lake Lure
The restaurant that fills up fastest sits on the east end of the lake, not the cluster on the west side near the village. The Highlands Reserve, at 143 Whitney Blvd near the dam, sits over the Broad River on its own stretch of bank rather than in a row of shops. It’s open daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., per the restaurant’s own site, serving breakfast straight through dinner.
I’d book ahead for a weekend or a holiday. The outdoor seating fills first, and on a busy Fourth of July, walk-ins without a reservation ended up waiting. It’s a different scene from the more scattered restaurants along Memorial Highway on the lake’s west side, worth the short drive around for a river view instead of a lake view.
Frequently asked questions about Chimney Rock
Is Chimney Rock Open?
Yes, as of this season. The park is open daily, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with hiking until 7 p.m., per the park’s own site. A few trails are still closed from Hurricane Helene. Still, the main attraction, the elevator and the summit overlook, are all running.
Is the Chimney Rock elevator open?
Yes, it’s operational. Helene’s floodwater damaged it in 2024. Since then, it’s been repaired and is back in regular use, per the park’s current site.
How much are tickets to Chimney Rock?
Adult admission is $17, per the park’s current ticket page. Youth ages 5–15 are $8, and children 4 and under are free. Reservations are recommended for busy weekends but not required most of the year.
Is Lake Lure Open?
Yes. The lake refilled to full pool in May 2026. Since then, the beach, boat tours and marina have all reopened, per the Town of Lake Lure.
How long is the Hickory Nut Falls Trail?
It’s a 1.4-mile round trip rated moderate, per the park’s own trail page. It leads to the base of the falls used in the climax of The Last of the Mohicans.
Prices are approximate, current as of publication, and change frequently — confirm the latest rates with Chimney Rock State Park or Lake Lure Tours before you go.
Published September 24, 2026.