I think that North Carolina gets bypassed by a lot of people when they are considering where to vacation and I suppose, given the wealth of other more exotic places to go to I can kind of understand why they would do so. North Carolina isn't as exotic as the waters of Florida, it doesn't have the attractions of New York City (which in my personal opinion is super over-rated), and of course a lot of people will flock to very famous places like the California coast, the Grand Canyon or head over to Las Vegas to throw all their money away.
What people tend to overlook about North Carolina is that we have a ton of natural beauty here and lots of national parks. Sure our oceans aren't that aquamarine color that everyone wants so much but I have news for you, unless you are in very specific parts of Florida, neither does the rest of the country.
What we do have is a ton of great outdoors stuff and while I have been to Grandfather Mountain State Park several times in the past I was unaware until recently that the "mile high swinging bridge" is actually the highest in the entire country.
Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Grandfather Mountain is a protected area with nature in all directions. I will admit they are cheating a bit with the classification of this bridge, because it really isn't that far from the small dip below, it would probably still kill you if you fell from it, but it isn't terrifyingly far from the ground.
What makes it so special is that once you are on it, you have really awesome views in every direction and you have to have binoculars with you to really even be able to spot civilization in every direction but one. I love this sort of stuff and one of the main factors about it, and almost everything else in the Blue Ridge National Parks in North Carolina is that it is completely free to visit. It doesn't matter if you are from North Carolina or not, there is no entrance fee to almost any of the attractions in these parks. That's pretty special in my mind.
The bridge itself has obviously gone through extensive upkeep throughout the years, but there was a time that it was comprised almost entirely of wood. These days, there is no wood in the mix at all, which is probably a good thing from a safety standpoint.
During certain times of year the bridge can be almost completely covered by fog and this is a spooky but also awesome thing to witness.
I realize that the bridge is just a tiny part of the national park and people probably shouldn't travel to this area just for that. The good news is that there are tons of waterfalls, hiking paths, camping areas, and even a golf course over here as well (that was the main reason why i was there the first time.)
The park is located in the Western-most part of the state to the point where you are nearly in Tennessee by the time you ge there - so it is actually quite a trek for me to get there. The good news is that once you are all the way out there there are tons of other things to do and you are just a short journey from Asheville, which is home to a bunch of tourism oriented stuff such as the Biltmore Estate.
I think this part of the country is overlooked from a tourism standpoint and honestly, that is a real shame or perhaps a blessing because there are very rarely any sort of annoying levels of crowds at any of these places. I suppose we gotta try to find the good in whatever we can!