There are 269 narrow, winding steps to the top of the Cape Hatteras Light Station in Buxton, North Carolina, which was built in 1872 and stands 198 feet tall. The Cape Hatteras lighthouse guards one of the most dangerous stretches of the Atlantic coastline, a 12-mile-long sandbar called Diamond Shoals, where two currents collide and hundreds of shipwrecks have occurred over the years.

If you thought the U.S. was absent of monkeys (bar those in zoos), you’ve never been to Morgan Island. The island off the coast of South Carolina is home to 4,000 rhesus monkeys. The monkeys were relocated to the island in 1979 from a Puerto Rico research center. The population grew, and the federally protected island has served as their home ever since.

The city of High Point in North Carolina's Piedmont mountains is famous for all things furniture. During the Industrial Revolution, the town became popular with home-furnishing manufacturers thanks to its plentiful supply of local timber and cheap labor. To cement its status, the city built the World's Largest Chest of Drawers, which today stands nearly 40 feet tall.

As the only state with an official drinking toast, North Carolina takes “cheers” to another level. Designated in 1957, the North Carolina State Toast is based on a poem by Mary Burke Kerr and Leonora Martin called “A Toast,” written in 1904.

The English cities of Lancaster, Windsor, and York all have counterparts in South Carolina. The smallest of the three is Windsor, with a population of just 121. Although both England and South Carolina have popular beach destinations, the northern resort town of Blackpool does not have a namesake in the Palmetto State.

Forget Georgia peaches: South Carolina regularly outproduces its neighbor. While California leads the U.S. in peach production, South Carolina comes in second. In 2021, the state grew 76,500 tons of the succulent fruit, with a value of $67 million. Georgia trails in third place. The key season for South Carolina peaches is May through August.

The Angel Oak Tree is a popular tourist attraction on St. John’s Island in Charleston. The massive tree, which is believed to be about 500 years old, reaches 66 feet tall and produces approximately 17,000 square feet of shade. The Angel Oak Tree is believed to be one of the oldest living things in the U.S.

With more than 350 locations across the U.S., Krispy Kreme got its start in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1937, when founder Vernon Rudolph started making yeasted doughnuts for local stores. Passers-by kept stopping to ask for a bite, so he opened a booth to sell them. Today, there are Krispy Kremes as far afield as Australia and the Middle East.

While many headed west to California in the mid-19th century in search of gold, the first gold rush occurred about 50 years earlier in North Carolina. It was then that 12-year-old Conrad Reed discovered gold while fishing at Little Meadow Creek in 1799. Those in neighboring counties also mined for gold, and the region was soon overrun with gold diggers.

Congaree National Park may be the only national park in South Carolina, but its forest is home to some of the largest trees in the eastern United States, including giant hardwoods and towering pines. Located 18 miles southeast of Columbia in the central part of the state, the park contains America’s largest contiguous tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest.

North Carolina’s Research Triangle gets its name from Research Triangle Park. The park itself was named in 1959 for its position near three top research universities — the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, and North Carolina State University. Greensboro construction company executive Romeo Guest coined the term after noticing the triangular relationship of Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh on a map.

The Biltmore Estate, located in Asheville, North Carolina, is the largest privately owned house in the United States. George Vanderbilt started construction on the home in 1889, and it took six years to complete. The main chateau spans 175,000 square feet and 250 rooms, including 35 bedrooms and 43 bathrooms.

Mount Mitchell in North Carolina stands 6,684 feet tall, making it the tallest point east of the Mississippi River. The peak is part of the Black Mountain range in western North Carolina, which also contains six of the 10 highest points east of the Mississippi. The scenic Blue Ridge Parkway passes through Mount Mitchell State Park.

Rainbow Row is the name for a series of 13 colorful historic houses in Charleston, South Carolina, which represents the longest cluster of Georgian row houses in the U.S. The name was coined after the pastel colors the houses were painted during a restoration in the 1930s and 1940s. Rainbow Row is now a popular tourist attraction and one of the most photographed parts of Charleston.

Thanks to the city’s many cultural attractions and free museums, Raleigh is nicknamed the “Smithsonian of the South.” Amongst these sites is the North Carolina Museum of History, which is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in D.C. There are also several art museums around the city, including CAM Raleigh, Gregg Museum of Art & Design, and the North Carolina Museum of Art.

On December 17, 1903, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright carried out the first successful test flight of their powered aircraft. With Orville at the controls, the plane lifted off the sands. The flight lasted only 12 seconds, but it was a key moment in the birth of aviation. Today, the site is a national memorial to honor the achievement.

In 1663, King Charles II granted the land that is now the Carolinas to a group of noblemen to establish a new colony. A few years later, they founded Charleston and named it after the king. The states themselves were also named in his honor: Carolina is derived from Carolus, Latin for Charles.

Located in the center of the state along the Congaree River, Columbia became South Carolina’s state capital in 1786, replacing the former capital of Charleston with a more centralized location. Columbia is South Carolina’s second-most populous city after Charleston, with 134,000 residents, and is home to a number of universities, including the University of South Carolina.

At 410 miles long, the Roanoke is the longest river in North Carolina. The Roanoke begins in Virginia and runs down into the Albemarle Sound, where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. It provides extensive drainage for the region between the Appalachian Mountains and the coast. The shortest river in the state is the Cape Fear River, which is 202 miles long.

The palmetto tree is the official tree of South Carolina. It is also what gives the state its official nickname. In 1776, the British were defeated at Fort Moultrie, thanks in part to palmetto logs, which were said to absorb the impact of the British cannonballs. Neighboring North Carolina is nicknamed the Tar Heel State.

The 60-mile stretch of Atlantic Coast in South Carolina known as the Grand Strand contains several of the state’s most famous beach destinations. That includes Myrtle Beach, which attracts more than 10 million visitors every year to its beachfront boardwalks, seafood restaurants, amusement parks, and golf courses. Visitors to the area can hop aboard the SkyWheel in Myrtle Beach — one of the country’s tallest Ferris wheels.