Harbor Island, South Carolina
Since we moved closer to the East Coast, each year we have explored a new beach area along the South Carolina coast. We’ve really enjoyed Folly Beach, but we usually go in the off season. That was not an option this year since I’m due in September. The high season the price was just a little more than I wanted to pay this year. We don’t like the crowds of Myrtle Beach and last year the surf was pretty rough on the littles. I went searching.
I stumbled across Hunting Island State Park, randomly had a friend tell me they were RV camping at Hunting Island State Park, and then one of our favorite YouTube families also posted a video at Hunting Island State Park. I felt like the Universe was point us in a direction.
I was not going to tent camp at the beach for 7 days while 28 weeks pregnant, so I found a 1 bedroom condo in the Harbor Island Community. We could see the beach and one of the pools from our 2nd story balcony. The balcony was screened in, so not mosquitoes, and it had recently been updated. We watched the sunrise from the big windows every morning. Priced at about $1300, it was exactly what we needed. I think if you call the property managment company directly then you may get a slightly better deal than I got through HomeAway. Link to Condo.
I’ll be honest, I was not really expecting to enjoy myself much on this vacation. Vacation with kids is always stressful. It’s hot and I’m big and pregnant. Everyone else wanted to go though so I was going to be a trooper and make it happen. Ya’ll. This was probably one of the best vacations I’ve ever been on other than my honeymoon.
Now this area is not the perfect fit for everyone, but it was the perfect fit for us. There’s not many restaurants or stores near it. There’s no mini golf or go carts. No parasailing. Harbor Island and Hunting Island are quiet. Uncrowded. There are 2-3 restaurants within 10 minutes and a beach store just past the Harbor Island entrance. The beach was spread out and mostly families or retirees. Even the pool usually had no more than 10 people in it. Sometimes it was just us.
The beach was a 2-3 minute walk across a boardwalk that went over the dunes and a small marshy area. Everyday we looked for new creatures. The very first day we saw a small alligator! I didn’t even take a picture because I thought we’d see another, but never did. We saw several yellow bellied slider turtles, lots of tadpoles, and the biggest dragonflies. In the evening you’d see huge swarms of dragonflies out munching on mosquitoes.
The tide here was like nothing either of us had experienced either. Harbor Island is a barrier island where the river meets the ocean. There is about a 7-8 foot tide differential. During high tide, the waves were decent. Not big enough for boogie boarding for older kids, but good for my young kids. At low tide the water is way WAY out. When you finally get out to the water it’s knee deep for about as far as you care to walk. We walked out probably 50 yards into the water. There are small tide pools full of hermit crabs, sea snails, and welks. I saw the biggest hermit crabs I’ve ever seen in person. The shells were almost as big as the palm of my hand. There was a wide variety of water fowl fishing in the shallows. Not just the seagulls and sand pipers we usually see. There were whole horseshoe crabs and blue crabs washed up on the shore. If you walked down to the point, there were big shells every morning. I walked down there, but it was a bit far for me 5 and 2 year old.
One of the coolest things is that it was sea turtle nesting season. There were nests all up and down the shoreline. Harbor Island Community has a team of volunteers that gets up every morning for sea turtle patrol. They would check for nests, move any that were in the path of the boardwalk, run off any racoons feasting, or even help return any exhausted sea turtles back to the water. When the nests hatch, the volunteers will help protect any stragglers from the sea birds looking for a snack. We were lucky enough to see tracks from a sea turtle that laid a nest. The kids thought it was so cool and I did too. The volunteers hold a weekly information session at the Community Center. The kids were fascinated. As an adult, it could have been a little more cohesive, but it was still a good thing to attend. I was glad to support this project.
We learned that the area we were in was a shark breeding ground too. The water was incredibly calm compared to other beaches we’d been to in the U.S. The sharks would come into the inlet or the marshy river area to lay their eggs or have the babies. The shark pups feed on the small fish and are able to avoid most predators found in deeper water. We saw several people shark fishing and saw a lot of catches. There were several small black tip, a hammerhead, and even a sting ray. Again, my nature loving kids thought this the coolest thing. The fisherman we saw removed the hooks and released them back quickly.
This was such a relaxing vacation and a much needed reconnect for our family. I can’t brag on it enough. I’ll post more about Hunting Island State Park and our restaurant choices next week.
