Places 033rayray Wants to Go

This shifting North Carolina sand dune is an odd little desert surrounded by oceanic forest life.

The world's largest vertical wind tunnel.

Traditional Appalachian dances such as the Georgia Rang Tang and the Shoo-Fly Swing are kept alive at this weekly event.

A folk art mecca famous among outsider art fans.

These strange large stones served as a campsite and lookout post for generations of Native Americans.

Burial site more than 300 years old.

Beautiful Gothic-inspired lighthouse stands out among the run-of-the-mill striped fare on Bodies Island.

This abandoned lighthouse looks like a rusting oil rig, but has managed to survive a number of storms.

Andy Griffith's hometown has made itself up to look like the fictional town of Mayberry.

The first statue of Christ sleeping on a bench in the United States confused its affluent parish.

This ceremonial mound is one of the first officially recognized Native American historical sites in North Carolina.

The enormous 250-room Vanderbilt mansion conceals hidden doors and secret passageways.

Some North Carolina Cherokee have been keeping their history alive for decades with a single play.

This scented city oasis was a labor of love.

This North Carolina store preserves a historic moment in America's movement for racial equality.

The cruel trial of a 13-year-old boy inspired the creation of this now abandoned reformatory.

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

The U.S. Supreme Court's secret Cold War relocation facility in the mountains of North Carolina.

A mailbox that saved a nature reserve.

Ruins of an American Civil War iron forge still survive today.

Trace the history of writing at this unusual North Carolina destination.

One of the best places to see wild Colonial Spanish Mustangs in the United States.

A curious collection of oddities including a lock of Alexander Hamilton's hair and Harry Houdini's ouija board.

This research center for rare prosimians is studying how they sleep to help prolong human life.