The Piedmont Mountain range that occupies North Carolina's heartland is a relative geological infant, formed some 250 million years ago in the wake of similar tectonic buckling that created the Appalachian Mountains to the west. The Piedmont contains the state's three largest cities—Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro—offering the bustling metropolises a nearby landscape of hills, forests, and lakes.
Photo credit: William B. Umstead State Park, North Carolina (North Carolina Tourism)
