Friday, January 6, 2017

Edisto Beach State Park, SC

Before heading toward Charleston we noticed a South Carolina State Park just south of the City and decided to give it a try.  Turned out to be a great idea. We arrived at Edisto Beach State Park around 3:00 to sun and temperatures in the 70's.  Just what we needed. 



All the sites were clean, spacious, and private.  Wide roads wound through stands of thick live oak and palmetto palm, with glimpses of an extensive salt marsh just beyond each numbered spot.




Lots of available places during the week.




A small glimpse of the marsh from the back on our spot. The Live Oak campground where we are, is adjacent to an extensive salt marsh.  A second campground, called the Beach campground, is on the Atlantic Ocean.  However it is closed at this time due to substantial damage from Hurricane Matthew last October.





Unfortunately, the only bird sighting we had that afternoon was a decaying wing from a great blue heron

The next morning we unloaded our bicycles and rode about a half mile to the rental cottages.  These seven cabins were built by the CCC in the 1930's and have been well maintained.




Five of the cabins are 1 bedroom, sleeping up to 4; and two cabins have three bedrooms and sleep 6.




Each of the seven rentals has a screened-in porch looking out on the marsh side, with a picnic table and fire pit just outside the door.




Behind the buildings there is a fishing dock reaching out into Scott Creek that runs through the marsh




Posted on each of the rental cabins


After lunch we drove down to the beach area for a look at the beach campsites and to have our first beach walk of the season.  We love to walk on the southern beaches in the winter.  They seem to run for miles and we usually are all by ourselves.








The beach was covered with millions of oyster shells.  Made me understand why one of the local attractions is a huge 2000 year old shell midden created by the Edisto Native Americans.  It also made me wonder if this collection of shells was a part of the damage done by hurricane Matthew. There must be some amazing oyster beds along this coast.



The road to the beach camping area was closed, but as we walked down the beach this was our first look at the sites.  Looked like most of the beach sand dunes ended up covering where RV's once parked






Predicted reopening is for September 2017.




This is the rear of the bathhouse.  I suspect there was substantial damage at this building






Roadside view.  of the bathhouse.

An interesting historical note about Edisto Beach State Park occurred in 1956 during the beginnings of  the Civil Rights struggle.  At that time, South Carolina State Parks excluded admission to blacks. When a black family requested, and was denied, entry to the park, the Charlotte chapter of the NAACP filed a suite against the State Park system.  The State's response was to close ALL the State Parks for the next 7 years making the law suit useless.    South Carolina Parks were legally integrated in 1966.

 Our visit here ended earlier than we planned.  The weather report was for the temperatures to drop into the mid to low 20's, with freezing rain possible, Our better judgement encouraged us to move much further south and to do it before we had to take out our long underwear!. That includes skipping all the Wild Life Refuges along the Georgia coast we planned to investigate.

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