FitDog Friday - Great Places to Walk: Hunting Island State Park, South Carolina

It's Fit Dog Friday!  

Fit Dog Friday is a blog hop hosted by my friends SlimDoggy, Peggy's Pet Place, and To Dog With Love.  Check out our hosts and the other bloggers in the hop (see below) for ideas, tips and inspiration for getting and keeping your pups fit and healthy.

Mom and I love to walk.  Whenever we travel, we try to find good places to walk.  Each week I will tell you about a new place to walk.

And now for this week's segment of Great Places to Walk . . .

Last week I told you about a wonderful little town in South Carolina called Beaufort, where we spent part of our vacation this past April.  While we were in Beaufort, we drove over to Hunting Island State Park, which is a GREAT place to walk.

First we walked out on the Marsh Boardwalk.  It was a short, but very interesting walk, and was a great place for viewing marsh creatures.

Looking for marsh creatures

The Marsh Boardwalk

Marsh Creatures!

Next we went to the beach near the lighthouse.  We parked in the parking lot near the lighthouse, had a picnic lunch in one of the covered picnic areas, then walked out on the beach.  We timed our walk for low tide, which is the best time to walk on the beach at Hunting Island.

Mom and I have always loved walking on the beach, but the beach at Hunting Island was like nothing we had ever seen.

What manner of beast is this?

Is this some prehistoric creature?

Showing off

But how do I get down?

There was a lot of driftwood on the beach . . .
the biggest driftwood we've ever seen

I suppose, technically speaking, it's not driftwood if it's still attached to the ground, but it sure looked like giant driftwood

I found a GREAT stick

I LOVE this place

Having a post-walk drink

As you can see from the photos, Hunting Island Beach is not your typical beach.  It's wide and flat and the sand is firm and easy to walk on.  But the most beautiful part about it is the weathered dead trees.  I know that sounds odd, seeing as dead things aren't often beautiful.  But you should check it out for yourself if you visit South Carolina's Sea Islands.

Go at low tide, and you can park at the lighthouse parking lot.  There's a $5 per adult admission fee (but it's well worth it).  To see the trees, go out to the beach and take a left.  From the lighthouse to the campground and back is about 2 1/2 miles, but you could walk many more miles if you wanted.  We didn't walk on the beach to the right, but it looked like there were fewer trees and more sunbathers in that direction.

Note that the park website says there are gators that live there, so use caution, especially around the lagoon area.  We don't expect to see gators on a beach on the ocean, but we always keep a look out anyway.