Hunting Island Beach

We have spent our fair share of time on beautiful beaches. We love the beach. Most any beach! But we have a definite preference for the no-boardwalk, no neon, no crowd, as natural-and-walkable-and-remote-as-possible beach. In the category of Able-To-Get-To-Without-Getting-On-An-Airplane, Hunting Island wins for us as all-around favorite beach.

In fact, we chose the beach house we did for its proximity to Hunting Island State Park (click here and click here). The park entrance is 5 minutes down the road from the house we’re renting. Hunting Island is stunning in it’s rare, protected, natural beauty. The park is expansive in possibilities for adventure. We spend lots of time there, and I always feel like we can’t even scrape the surface of it. But the beach itself is a prime attraction.

The drive to the beach, alone, is worth the trip. (I took all of these photos with my iPhone yesterday — the photo below is taken from the driver’s seat, through the dashboard window). Check this out! For those of us from other parts of the country, this sort of lush, tropical, palmetto-rich landscape is almost surreal ~

The only “boardwalk” you’ll find is actual boardwalk paths, zig-zagging through the woods, to get from the parking spaces to the beachfront. The woods and dunes are all protected, so the boardwalk paths provide the only beach access. It feels like we’re in an entirely different world as we make the walk to the beach ~

Then, there it is. Hunting Island beach in all it’s glory. Apparently this is the most-visited state park in South Carolina, but the beach is never crowded. Even this week — 4th of July week (the busiest week of the summer season) — there are amazingly few people there. There is so much to do on the beach there — not the least of which are searching for sand dollars and shark’s teeth (on Monday we found 35 shark’s teeth on Hunting Island beach! We have yet to find a dead sand dollar, so we have yet to take one off the beach with us.). But for the bambinos, the best part is that the water is so warm, and the waves are so perfect for boogie boarding and body surfing ~

(Meera has suddenly got the hang of boogie boarding and body surfing this year! She’s quite the 6-year-old pro at it!)

Seriously, if you’re ever in the area, Hunting Island is a must-do!