Seven Natural Wonders of North Carolina, and then some

Last week Observer Travel Editor John Bordsen had a fun piece on the Seven Wonders of the Carolinas. It reminded me of a list that Asheville Citizen editor Don Shoemaker wrote half a century ago. I ran across it in Richard Walser’s 1962 book “The North Carolina Miscellany.”
Shoemaker listed these nominees: the Cow Palace at Raleigh (Dorton Arena); the Old Fort-Ridgecrest Southern Railway; the Blue Ridge Parkway; a mammoth textile mill such as Cone; the carillon tower at Duke; the playmakers building at Chapel Hill; the State Capitol Building; the Wright Memorial At Kill Devil Hills.
(The Greensboro Daily News noted the excessive number on April 22, 1956, and interjected: “But wait a minute. That’s already eight, and Don hasn’t even mentioned Dr. Archibald Henderson or Harry Golden.” Henderson was a beloved math professor and eccentric at what is now called UNC Chapel Hill; Golden was a newspaper editor who published The Carolina Israelite and wrote wonderful pieces making fun, among other things, of racial segregation.)
All those wonders cited by the usual lists were built by people. I’d like to start a list of North Carolina’s Natural Wonders, and here are my nominees:
Cape Lookout Bight, a natural harbor behind that dramatic cape that sailors have used for centuries to wait out a storm; Lake Mattamuskeet in Carteret County, an amazing sight especially in winter when its waters are the home to thousands of huge migratory waterfowl that come from the far frozen North; the Neuse River down below New Bern where it makes the big turn at Minnesott and is wider than the Mississippi – and tough to navigate in bad weather; Duke Forest near Durham, any time of year; the rolling hills of Randolph County called the Uwharrie Mountains; Linville Gorge and Grandfather Mountain; Mount Mitchell and Clingman’s Dome... But wait, that’s nine, and I haven’t even mentioned Bland Simpson or Roy Williams!
What would you put on your list?