Sandhills Scenic Drive

Sandhills Scenic Drive runs 46 miles across central North Carolina, from Albemarle through the Uwharrie National Forest to Carthage's historic courthouse square. Following NC 24/27 through Montgomery, Moore, and Stanly counties, the byway crosses the Sandhills, a band of low, coarse-soiled hills between the Cape Fear and Pee Dee rivers first settled by Scottish highlanders around 1740. Along the way it passes through the towns of Troy and Biscoe, then Morrow Mountain State Park and Lake Tillery, before reaching the 898-acre Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve, home to several endangered species adapted to the region's distinctive longleaf pine and wiregrass habitat. The drive ends at Carthage's courthouse square, a small-town Moore County landmark surrounded by the antique shops and old storefronts typical of the Sandhills. There's no charge to drive the byway itself, though individual stops like the state park may carry their own fees. It's a good introduction to the sandy, pine-covered terrain that gives the wider Sandhills region its name.

• Albemarle to Carthage
• 46 miles on NC 24/27
• Uwharrie National Forest
• Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve
• Scottish highlander settlement (c. 1740)
• Morrow Mountain State Park