Places colettebauer Wants to Go

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

The final resting place of the hundreds of bodies originally buried where Badin Lake sits now.

Follow the path behind this treat-slinging camper van to a sculpture garden in the forest.

A mountaintop space observatory that is certified dark.

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

The antique barns in Cameron are not painted with your grandfather's Mail Pouch Tobacco murals.

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

This Transylvania County city is home to a rare white squirrel population that is descended from an escaped carnival animal.

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

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

A 17th-century bezoar, dirt from an infamous site, and other curios decorate this unusual bar.

The scant remains of this flooded historic village can be explored in one of the most remote areas of the Great Smokies.

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

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

Perhaps the oldest vine in North America, this sprawling plant helps make a sweet wine.

A wedding chapel, vintage clothing shop, and bar all under one roof.

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

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

This scented city oasis was a labor of love.

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

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

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

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

A piece of outsider public art accompanied by a strange urban legend.