Imagine world-class whitewater rapids that can intensify or lessen at your request. Visitors to the US National Whitewater Center in Charlotte can live that experience at the largest manmade whitewater channel system in the world and the only outdoor recreation center of its size and kind. 

Adventure to what feels like your own private island in the coastal town of Swansboro. As part of Hammocks Beach State Park, Huggins Island is 225 acres of undeveloped land that's home to a maritime swamp forest listed as a Globally Rare and Significant Area.

Escaped from Spanish ships, North Carolina's wild horses have run freely for nearly 500 years on the Outer Banks beaches of Corolla and on the Shackleford Banks in the Crystal Coast. The best way to see them is on a wild horse vehicle tour or a trip with the Corolla Wild Horse Fund.

As many Nicholas Sparks fans know, nearly all of his books and movies are set in different parts of North Carolina; he even resides in New Bern.

The sands and constant wind of the Outer Banks make the area the perfect destination for gliding on the air. In fact, Orville Wright set the world record for gliding in the Outer Banks several years after his historic flight.

The coast of North Carolina has inspired mankind for centuries, but on Dec. 17, 1903, the pull reached new heights. Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved man's first successful heavier-than-air, powered, controlled flight that day at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk.

Topsail’s beaches are known for their natural beauty, which is often a draw for visitors — and sea turtles. North Carolina’s warm and shallow waters, plus a vast system of estuaries, provide an ideal habitat for nesting sea turtles, and Topsail hosts a large number throughout the year.

Pier fishing is a tradition along North Carolina’s coast, and no spot has a longer history for anglers than the Kure Beach Fishing Pier — the oldest on the Atlantic Coast. The pier dates back to 1923 when LC Kure built a 120-foot-long pier made of pine. That pier lasted less than a year, but in 1924 he pioneered the use of reinforced concrete to build a 240-foot pier.

If you walk in front of the seawall between Kure Beach and Fort Fisher at low tide, you’ll come upon the only coquina outcrop on the North Carolina coast. Located a short distance from the Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, these mounds of clumped shells have hardened over the years from surface exposure. They form a small platform extending beneath Kure and Carolina beaches as well as Masonboro Island.

One of the most distinct and spectacular aspects of the Outer Banks is the natural, scenic and remote condition of so much of a vast coastal area that is close to major population centers along the East Coast.