Colorful murals stationed throughout Charlotte bring poetry to everyone.

This road in the Great Smoky Mountains was supposed to assuage a displaced community, but ended up a $52 million dead end.

Mile-long cave system near Great Smoky Mountains.

Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia meet at this point in the Cumberland Gap.

A curious whirlpool formation supposedly capable of entangling or engulfing branches, tree trunks, or whole rafts full of hapless tourists.

An alternate history park where the Union Army loses the war... to dinosaurs.

Home of a 28-foot tall stalagmite known as the War Club.

All that's left of the quintessential "cabin in the woods."

An unfinished rail tunnel that has since been used to house cheese and bats.

Wild lights and sound effects turn a walk through some caves into an eye-popping 1960s tourist attraction.

This vast kitty-themed collection illustrates the history of human-cat interaction.

A 300-yard long natural tunnel runs through a ridge deep in the Appalachian Mountains.

This natural wonderland is a unique chance to explore a Carolina bay, a mysterious geological formation of unknown origin.

This abandoned amusement park was built on a site with a dark history.

I-95's Tijuana-style celebration of kitsch at the Carolina border.

North Carolina's finest examples of Native American pictographs have survived for 5,000 years.

This granite rock face is named for the magnificent reflection that occurs when the sun hits it just right.

This North Carolina museum is keeping the pinball craze alive, with a little Space Invaders on the side.

The sole remaining outpost of a once-thriving South Carolina chain still sells “pic-a-nic” baskets.

This historic church houses the grave of a Scottish soldier who fought in the Battle of Waterloo.

Gnarled canopies of pink and purple wildflowers arch over the trail to the summit.

An eerily abandoned stone tower is all that remains of a demolished dam on Cape Fear River.

North Carolina's only restored fort from the French and Indian War.

A historic covered bridge, only one of two remaining in North Carolina.