A sweeping vista of lake and gorge. The only place on the planet meat-eating Venus flytraps grow. A forest of trees so breathtakingly large they seem primeval.

These are just a few of the Carolinas' natural wonders to put on your list for 2012 - standout places in two states blessed with an abundance of magical, wild spaces.

Some showcase the rare and hidden, while others give you a place to let your vision soar.

Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest

Stand in this cathedral of 100-foot yellow poplar trees and you will know what it is to feel small and young - at least compared with trees 20 feet around and 400 years old.

This treasure is one of the last remaining tracts of virgin Appalachian forest, protected in honor of soldier-poet Joyce Kilmer, who wrote the famous "Trees" poem ("I think that I shall never see ..."). Kilmer was killed in World War I, and the stunning cove forest is a fitting memorial to him and others lost in that tragic war. The loop trails through the giant trees provide an easy walk.

Location: Near Robbinsville.

Details: bit.ly/qTyMHx

Jocassee Gorges

Jocassee Gorges cradles most of the S.C. mountains and contains an overlook above Lake Jocassee that is "one of the most spectacular views in South Carolina," says John Frampton, head of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, who nominated this natural wonder to our list. There are several vehicle access points within the protected property, and you can drive to the top of Sassafras Mountain, South Carolina's highest point, which straddles the N.C.-S.C. line.

Location: Near Pickens, S.C.

Details: 1.usa.gov/t34wS6

Pocosin Lakes/

Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuges

Thousands of snow geese and tundra swans, whitening the winter air with their wings and sending chills down your spine with their high, alien voices: That is the enchantment that draws N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences Director Betsy Bennett to these coastal N.C. refuges each winter. In addition to the migratory waterfowl, Bennett regularly sees black bears and bald eagles.

Location: Pungo Lake and Swan Quarter.

Details: 1.usa.gov/uyLhxb and www.fws.gov/mattamuskeet

Francis Beidler Forest

Bald cypress trees - some 1,000 years old - rise ghostlike from a black water swamp, through which a boardwalk trail winds. They were saved by a combination of location and love: The ancient trees were too difficult to reach for timbering, and lumber baron owner Francis Beidler Sr. was a late-in-life conservationist. This forest is bug-free in the winter but also a delight in early spring, when its bright-yellow prothonotary warblers return from Central and South America. Beidler is the world's largest surviving cypress-tupelo swamp.

Location: Harleyville, S.C.

Details: http://sc.audubon .org/Centers_FBF.html

Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve

If you want to know what vast swaths of the South once looked like, head to this 900-acre remnant of the longleaf pine forest in the Sandhills region. The longleaf is a signature N.C. tree that depends on ground-clearing fire to survive. Walk the white-sand trail and gaze out at the grassy, open expanse dotted by longleaf trunks and you'll see North Carolina's answer to an African savanna.

Location: Near Southern Pines.

Details: 1.usa.gov/tNygGd

DuPont State Forest

Waterfalls are what draw most visitors to this 10,400-acre forest in the Western North Carolina Blue Ridge, and there are some massive ones. But Roy Alexander, Davidson Lands Conservancy executive director, let us in on a secret attraction: rare blue ghost fireflies.

"There are a couple of weeks in late spring that you can go there in the evening and experience them," he said. "They don't blink. They just come on and stay on for a minute or two at a time. It's a blue-white, almost LED-light color, eerie and ghostlike."

Location: Near Brevard.

Details: bit.ly/tRdHDR, www.dupont forest.com

Carolina Beach

State Park

There's just one place on the globe where meat-eating Venus flytraps grow, and it's here, in part of a 60-mile radius around Wilmington. Sundews, pitcher plants and Venus flytraps cluster, snagging unlucky insects and wowing visitors. If a park staffer is available, ask for a guided tour, which will improve your chances of finding the plants.

This pocosin ecosystem, named for an Algonquian word for "swamp on a hill," also features longleaf pines growing on sand dunes that are relics from an ancient coastline. Before Europeans came, Cape Fear Indians called the region home, and their arrowheads, pottery shards and oyster-shell mounds are found throughout the area.

Location: Carolina Beach.

Details: 1.usa.gov/ s3Drt7

ACE River Basin

"The Yellowstone of South Carolina," is how S.C. DNR's John Frampton describes the 200,000 acres of black water swamp, preserved by a partnership among government, the private sector and nonprofits from being turned into subdivisions and golf courses.

The protected Ashepoo-Combahee-Edisto River basin is rich with photography, canoeing and birding possibilities - to say nothing of its healthy population of alligators. Frampton once stood along the bank at the ACE's Donnelly Wildlife Management area and counted 160 of the reptiles. "You can spend a couple of hours or a couple of days," he said of the ACE, which includes a driving tour.

Location: Near Beaufort, S.C.

Details: www.acebasin .net/index.html

Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Beachcombing and kayaking are two of the best ways to experience the natural wonder of this part of the barrier islands. And it's a good place to get the kind of big perspective you might be looking for at the start of a new year.

"You've got wide-open space, wide horizons," said the N.C. Museum of Natural Science's Betty Bennett. "You can watch the rain coming in over the sound."

But consider another of the cape's calling cards: deep, velvety, star-perfect darkness.

"A lot of nights you can see the Milky Way. It's phenomenal," said Ed Johnson, a volunteer at the Cape Hatteras Visitors Center. Park by the Hatteras lighthouse and walk to the beach to gaze up, out and far away.

Location: Cape Hatteras.

Details: 1.usa.gov/jqonJK