NORTH CAROLINA

North Carolina contains the highest peak in the eastern United States, Mount Mitchell in the Black Mountains at 6,684 feet, and the Outer Banks, a chain of barrier islands where the Wright Brothers made the first successful powered aircraft flights at Kitty Hawk in 1903. The state’s Blue Ridge Parkway, a 469-mile scenic road connecting Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountains, is the most visited unit of the National Park System by annual visitor count.

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