This Land, Your Land

They're not all "natural," and by our count there are actually 11, but everyone enjoys a Top 10 list and they're all part of public recreation lands, so here are "North Carolina's Top 10 Natural Wonders" as determined by Land for Tomorrow:

* Blue Ridge Parkway
* Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout
* Grandfather Mountain
* Great Smoky Mountains
* Lake Mattamuskeet
* Lumber River
* Merchants Millpond State Park
* Mountains to Sea Trail
* New River
* Ocracoke Island

Land for Tomorrow, a lobby that promotes the state’s conservation trust funds, asked the public to nominate any landscape, natural feature, wildlife or plant life that is unique to North Carolina and should be considered among the state’s greatest natural wonders.

About 200 potential natural wonders were narrowed to a field of 25 semifinalists by a panel of prominent North Carolinians, which included folks a diverse as Gov. Jim Holshouser, Tift Merritt and Eric Montross. From those 25, 10 were determined in a popular vote with "over 3,000 individual votes submitted."