Where was The Hunger Games filmed?

The first chapter of this dystopian blockbuster built its world from the forests and faded mill towns of the American South, and for fans it offers the rare thrill of stepping straight from a fictional future into real Appalachian landscape. Rather than studio fakery, much of its bleak districts and wild arena were shot on location in North Carolina.

The deadly arena itself is DuPont State Forest, a sweep of woodland laced with dramatic waterfalls where the heroine fights to survive the Games, and which now draws hikers along the same cascades. The grim home district is the abandoned Henry River Mill Village, a real ghost town of empty cotton-mill cottages that stood in for the run-down District 12, an eerie, evocative spot that fans visit to see where the story begins.

Both sit in western North Carolina, an easy region to tour by car amid the Blue Ridge Mountains. Pair DuPont's marked waterfall trails with the mill village and nearby towns like Asheville, check current access and any visiting arrangements for the village, and lace up proper shoes for the forest, where the scenery is the real attraction.