Counties are grouped into the state’s three regions: The Mountains, The Piedmont and The Coastal Plains.

The Mountains

Western North Carolina’s majestic landscape features the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Great Smoky Mountains, which help make up the Appalachian Mountains, possibly the oldest mountain range in the United States. The region is also home to Mount Mitchell. Rising 6,684 feet above sea level, Mount Mitchell is the tallest peak east of the Mississippi River. The Eastern Continental Divide runs along the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains, separating the rivers flowing east from those flowing west. Rivers that fall on the eastern side of the divide flow toward the Atlantic Ocean while those on the western side of the divide flow toward the Tennessee and Ohio rivers and into the Gulf of Mexico. NC Secretary of State website

The Piedmont

Piedmont is a French word meaning “foot of the mountain,” and North Carolina’s Piedmont region is sometimes referred to as “the foothills.” The rolling hills of this region range in elevation from just 300 feet in the east to 1,500 feet near the mountains. The Piedmont is sometimes referred to as a plateau because it is high and mostly flat. NC Secretary of State website

The Coastal Plains

The low, flat land of North Carolina’s eastern region stretches from the sandy farmland of the Inner Coastal Plain to the state’s Outer Banks, a string of barrier islands separated from the mainland by sounds or inlets. The Outer Banks has three capes — Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout, and Cape Fear. NC Secretary of State website