Hunting Island State Park, South Carolina

Hunting Island Lighthouse

During our stay at Harbor Island, SC, which is located about 25 minutes south of Beaufort, we spent two days at Hunting Island State Park.  It’s easy to see why people fall in love with this park.  We sure did! Hunting Island is South Carolina’s most popular state park. It boasts five miles of clean and quiet beaches, thousands of acres of marsh and maritime forest, a saltwater lagoon and ocean inlet. The entrance cost is $10 per adult and, in our opinion, totally worth it. It is also home to the only lighthouse in South Carolina that is publicly accessible. For a small additional fee of $2, you can climb to the top where you can get a breathtaking view of the Atlantic Coast and surrounding maritime forest. 

North Beach

The ranger at the check in point was friendly and helpful. Since it was our first time visiting she suggested North Beach so that’s where we headed.  Driving in felt like Jurassic Park.  There was marshy areas and dense foliage from palm trees and palmettos. The kids were pretending they saw dinosaurs in the trees. The lighthouse is located here on North Beach, but we didn’t go up in it.  There is a restriction for height and age, so Matt didn’t want to climb it by himself since kids were too short and I was too pregnant.  Where we parked, the beach had tons of trees washed up.  It’s gorgeous.  A great place for pictures.  It turned out to be not as great a place to swim with our littles. Finn got bumped into one of the trees by a wave and cut his hand and leg on barnacles.  We could have walked another 30 yards or so over the jetty to the lifeguarded beach, but we weren’t staying much longer at that point. Low tide was fine, but some of the trees were in the tide line. If you park closer to the lighthouse then you can walk straight onto the clear, life guarded part of the beach.

The second day we decided to check out South Beach.  There were less people since it didn’t have the lighthouse drawing in additional visitors. Although neither beach could be considered “crowded”, South Beach had even more open space. There was a whole section across the next jetty by the lagoon that didn’t even have anyone on it.  It was completely empty. The natural feel of the beach was the most magical part. Most of the beaches i grew up going to are lined with condos or dotted with houses, but since it’s a state park its unspoiled. The tree line from the parking lot went right up the beach. Amond the trees, there are scattered picnic tables and a few wash stations.  The scenery was fantastic.  The bathhouse was pretty clean and there was little to no trash left around. It was definitely well maintained whether by guests or park staff.

View from the bathroom

Deserted South Beach

When we were done swimming we drove over to the Nature Center. It was pretty small, but the kids enjoyed it. There were about 15 medium sized aquariums with turtles and snakes and a larger exhibit with some small alligators. There is a pier that you can walk out on as well. On the walls there were pelts and taxidermy animals, like hawks. The rangers stationed at this site were also very friendly and chatted with the kids about the animals.

On our way back to Harbor Island we drove through the Hunting Island campground.  The campground has it’s own, private section of beach.  There’s a little camp store you can stop at, but there is only 15 minute parking.  At the front of the campground the sites were sunny and open.  They weren’t cramped, but not very private either.  The campsites in the upper numbers were more shaded and offered more privacy.  All the sites offer electric and water. We would love to come back and go camping here. It was midweek in June and we were surprised there were open sites.  It is high on our list of places to camp with our RV.

Nature Center