burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Coastal lighthouses
Outer Banks/Kill Devil Hills
Whitewater Falls
Lake Lure
Carl Sandburg’s home
Boone, Blowing Rock, Sugar Mountain
Sliding Rock
Highlands, Sylva, Brevard, etc.
Asheville and Hendersonville
Davidson College, Duke University
Meredith and Salem Colleges
Old Salem
UNC school campuses

There are thousands of great locations here. In a state that’s over 500 miles wide, and includes a sea coast and the highest Eastern mountain, it’s hard to name any particular one. There’s history, agribusiness, wineries, manufacturing, a wide variety of colleges and universities, tourism, the Blue Ridge Parkway...

rkaustin Loc: north carolina

I'm from the coast of North Carolina and I love it. My town is the second oldest town in NC and it's on the Chowan River. I love the sunrise and sunset over the water. Also the outer banks of NC is very scenic and a photographer's dream.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

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Watch North Carolina Weekend, My Home NC, Sci NC, Flavor NC, and A Chef’s Life on UNC-TV. Loads of ideas there!

Wine drinkers can spend many weekends visiting NC wineries.

NASCAR fans can visit the museum in Charlotte, or one of the speedways.

Campers can find plenty of venues for RVs and tent camping.

Fishers can find plenty of lakes, rivers, streams, and off-shore Atlantic Ocean opportunities.

old poet

Skylinefirepest
I've lived my entire life in the Linville mountain area of NC, spending many days in the forests. I've seen only two rattlesnakes in my 79 years.
For the OP, hawksbill Table Rock, Grandfather Mountain are great for scenery. Cherokee for great cultural photos, Lighthouses of the Outer Banks, Chimney Rock State Park has easy access spectacular scenery. The Railway Museum at Spencer north of Charlotte. Remember, NC is a 500+ mile long state. Enjoy our great diversity.

Nantahalan Loc: Savannah originally; western NC now

Visitsmokies.org covers the far western part of the state. For more than 30 years, my job required me to travel frequently through the six far western part. Here are few places that come to mind:

Graham County (seat Robbinsville): Joyce Kilmer National Forest where you can see how big trees were before the Europeans came. Check to see if the Cherokee in the Snowbird Community are holding some public events. The lakes, all hydroelectric reservoirs, are scenic. Cherohala Skyway is similar in concept to the Blue Ridge Parkway and runs into TN and back. Riding around any of the roads there can yield scenes I like of farming, cattle, and just beautifully framed views. Fontana Dam is further down the road from which you’d turn L to Robbinsville. A former school hosts many cultural events and exhibits, but since my internal card catalog got kicked over, the name isn’t popping up!

Swain County, about 87% government land, has Fontana Lake, Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, most of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, most of Qualla Boundary, home of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians. The county seat, Bryson City, is well worth walking around. I particularly like the old courthouse with a WWII soldier monument. The Nantahala Gorge hosts the busiest river per mile in the nation, I”m told. Whitewater rafting is home there. Sometimes at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, you can see national and world class athletes practicing slaloms or competing freestyle. Incidentally, the hotel at Harrah’s Casino has the largest collection of contemporary Cherokee art on display. The Museum of the Cherokee Indian and the Qualla Arts and Crafts store contains first rate art.

Cherokee County is south of Graham. Andrews is a picturesque small town. If my work hadn’t been based in Franklin, I would have had a hard time choosing between Andrews and Cullowhee (home of Western Carolina University in Jackson County.) The locally-quarried county courthouse in Murphy is distinctive. Frankly, just riding from one end of this county to the other on US 64 yields quite a variety of scenery and human activity, and TVA lakes.

Adjacent Clay County has an old-timey downtown in Hayesville, complete with a brick courthouse from the 1880s. I’ve enjoyed just wandering from store to store, tarrying where something catches my eye. There’s a great walking path along part of Lake Chatuge, another TVA reservoir there.

Skipping northeast to Jackson County, which houses a good bit of the Chrerokee land, WCU, the resort community of Cashiers, and a very walkable and photogenic county seat and courthouse, Sylva. Sometimes called Asheville-west because of its quirky charm, this is pleasant place to walk around. At the moment the Bardo Center at WCU has an exhibit of WNC aerials. The Mountain Heritage Center will have some useful exhibits for understanding the area better, too. I always end up parking in a student spot, figuring a ticket will be worth the convenience of parking within 2 miles of my destination there. So far, no tickets, though!

My home county for 40 years is Macon, which sits just above the GA line. Franklin’s downtown is equally interesting as Sylva and BC, but with its own distinctives, statues, gazebo, public events, and several museums for local history and gems & minerals. Up the mountain is Highlands, NC, a higher end, popular visitor destination with an excellent art museum, restaurants, shops, and street scenes.

Favorite drives just for seeing the photogenic are:
US 64W from Franklin to the TN line. Goes through Macon, Clay, and Cherokee Counties.

US 64E from Franklin to Hendersonville. For an annual eye exam, I take this longer, winding route and try to leave a dawn for the scenes and light.

Needmore Road, an unsaved route along the Little TN River, runs from Macon to Swain counties. Wildlife, wildflowers, and moon reflections on the water are among the things that I’ve photographed along there. The walking bridge across the river is great too; its for school kids, being cheaper than running the bus all around.

Just going from Franklin to Highlands on 64 is quite scenic with several water falls, two of which you can walk under, Dry Falls and Bridal Veil Falls.

Disclaimer: My Mom used to tell other ladies that she was glad her only child was easily pleased. So what make me smile, go “ah,” or stop might not catch the notice of others.

Hope you come and enjoy!

brow3904 Loc: Upstate South Carolina

Just walk outside and lookl around! It is beautiful from the mountains to the coast. Guess you figured out I'm a native but now live in SC.

tommyII Loc: Northern Illinois

After reading the replies, I feel like getting in my car and heading East. I actually love traveling to Virginia and North Carolina. I was born and raised in Northern Illinois, and after 72 years, my roots go too deep to move now, but those mountain states pull me back every Autumn. I thank everyone who posted replies, and intend to look up some of these sites.

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

Blue Ridge Parkway

ClinchfieldPaul Loc: Salisbury NC

Oh, well you didn't say that. Check out the Clinchfield Loop at the orchard overlook on the BR Pkway.....

Well you are partially right in this trip down the mountain. You get off the Blue Ridge Parkway at McKinney Gap. Go down Peppers Creek Rd and it crosses the track one time at what is referred to as Camp Two. Camp Two was named for the second camp established in building the railroad over and through the mountains. There are I believe 16 tunnels in the 17 mile stretch of railroad. There is NOT a bike or hiking trail following the tracks. There is a bike/hike trail out of Old Fort that is built on old Hwy 70 and you can see the Southern Railway loops from part of it. Also the is the Virginia Creeper Trail in SW Virginia that uses the old N&W line from White Top Mountain to Abbington

tkgraves Loc: Greensboro, NC

Thanks all who responded, what great ideas, I’m feeling the need to get out my camera and hit the roads or hills!! Or coast!!!

tomcat

Take a couple of spare batteries, plenty of cards.

DeanS Loc: Capital City area of North Carolina

Tail of the Dragon between Tenn and NC. More curves on that 12-13 mile stretch than you cancount.

old poet

Clinchfield Paul,
Peppers Creek Road was the school bus route I drove back when students drove busses. None of it was paved back then. I still love that forest drive, after the state scrapes the washboards out of it. The Orchard would be a great cultural stop, in season. The scenery from Linville Falls to Asheville is spectacular. I walked the railroad "Loops" and a few of the tunnels as a youngster. Linville Falls overlooks are gorgeous. I grew up in North Cove valley with its beautiful well kept farm houses, all a landscape and heritage photographer's paradise.

ponchod5

I grew up on the NC coast (Hampstead). Very north end of Topsail Island is great. Sunrise over the sound side is not bad either. Swansboro, Calabash, Swan Quarter, Ocracoke Island...all the little towns and hamlets along the coast are quite picturesque.

old poet

Indeed they are. We love both the coast and mountains.