Friday, July 19, 2013

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 SlimDoggyPeggy'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.  






19 comments:

  1. Oh boy, gators would scare us from going there! We love beaches, used to live on the North Sea coast and that was great. Beaches in MN are rather boring.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stunning beach with all the drift wood. Just picture perfect Garth. Have a fabulous Friday and stay cool.
    Best wishes Molly

    ReplyDelete
  3. Garth, thanks for sharing these pictures - looks like a really cool place although I expected to see some thing to HUNT like rabbits or deer or ducks...oh well. I guess that driftwood is easier to catch. Thanks for joining the Hop!

    ReplyDelete
  4. We so want to go with you on that beach - sand, smell of the salt air - just don't want to get out feet wet though. Looks like you had a pawsome walk!

    ReplyDelete
  5. South Carolina has awesome beaches! We love beach walking, too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hiya there, Garth Riley, (or do your people shorten it to Garth, except when you are in trouble?!), Gypsy here. My mom said she was tickled to see Hunting Island State Park. She's been there before with my long ago step doggie sister and brother. She used to camp there with her people kids and doggie kids. One time she even saw some trees fall onto the beach when there was a storm that caused the ocean to take away too much land. She would never take her pups - human and dog - swimming at high tide 'cause you could bump into the stumps and logs. Thanks for putting up such great pictures of your walk. My favorite picture ... well, I can't just pick one. I like the picture of you on the tree and I like the quizzical look you have with the horseshoe crab. Oh... but the fiddler crabs are the best. They look really monstrous! Thanks for following my mom's page!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Garth! Nice to meet you! Just found you from the links posted on BlogPaws and my Mom and I signed up to follow you! We are following you on Twitter too!
    Hope you will follow back!
    Barks and licks and love, Dakota
    www.dakotasden.net

    ReplyDelete
  8. Fantastic walk Garth...I'd love to run and play on that gorgeous beach...Bet the marsh looks a lot different now than in April with all the rain we've had

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow! What an awesome beach, so much to see there.

    ReplyDelete
  10. OMG!! Those creatures looked scary, they are almost the size of us! Great pictures, thanks for sharing your awesome hike on the beach!

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a beautiful PAWsome place to go for a walk. The sand is really packed. Great balance Garth. I can't wait to go on a walk with you. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar

    ReplyDelete
  12. Those dead trees ARE cool. Looks like you found lots of good things to sniff too. Glad it wasn't one of those gators though :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a great day you had. I love your cool stick. I don't know about that creature though, I would have kept my distance. You are very brave.

    Loveys Sasha

    ReplyDelete
  14. That looks so cool Garth! I guess there aren't many marshes around here but exploring for marsh creatures sounds like fun. I also think the beach looks pretty cool too. Also a fun place to explore.

    ReplyDelete
  15. What a great place to visit! I would love to leave California one day! I've never been to a beach before, but those marsh creatures sure look appetizing hehe.

    ReplyDelete
  16. WOWS!! That was a great tour Garth!!! I felt the sea breeze blowin' thru my furs!!! And what a FABulous stick you found! Score!
    Kisses,
    Ruby ♥

    ReplyDelete
  17. Oh Garth - that looks like an AMAZING walk!!! Wish we could have come along - especially to meet all those weird marsh creatures. Hsin-Yi couldn't believe you met a real horseshoe crab! She's only ever seen them in formaldehyde in her biology lab at college! ;-)

    Slobbers,
    Honey the Great Dane

    ReplyDelete