North Carolina
Discover North Carolina
Introduction
North Carolina divides into three bands that run the width of the state, and almost everything about a trip here follows from which one you are in. The coastal plain ends in the Outer Banks, a thin chain of barrier islands. The Piedmont in the middle holds the cities — Charlotte, the Research Triangle of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. The mountains in the west rise to Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the eastern United States.
The Outer Banks were once known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, and the wrecks are still there. Cape Hatteras carries the tallest brick lighthouse in the country; Ocracoke, reachable only by ferry, carries the oldest still working in the state. At Jockey's Ridge the largest natural sand dune system on the Atlantic coast is high enough for hang gliding.
It was on these islands that powered flight began. The Wright brothers flew on 17 December 1903 at Kill Devil Hills — the flights are usually credited to nearby Kitty Hawk, where the brothers collected their mail, but the memorial stands on the dune they actually flew from.
Inland the state is known for college basketball, NASCAR, and a barbecue argument it has been having with itself for two centuries.