SC State Park Huntington Beach State Park

This is a beautiful place on the South Carolina coast and if I was going to visit the Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina or the Grand Strand, this would be my first choice of campgrounds. The whole park is beautiful and both campgrounds are really nice. The park is named for Anna Hyatt Huntington who was a famous sculptor. She and her husband had a house here that was called Atalaya Castle. The ruins of it are still here and you can tour it on a visit. Outside the park and on the other side of US 17 is Brookgreen Gardens that you can tour which has many of her sculptures. The family also donated land for a state park in Connecticut.

The North Campground is the older and larger of the two campgrounds and probably the one you want to stay in. The sites are gravel, with a lantern post, fire ring and picnic table. They are spaced nicely apart from each other so you will not have your neighbor on top of you. Even the sites on the inside of the loop do not back up to a neighbor in most cases. The inner area would have the least shade. There are some sites that back up to the dunes for a short walk to the beach. The sites furthest from the beach would offer you the most shade and privacy from your neighbors on very spacious sites.

The South Campground is very new and built to accommodate RV's and large trailers. It resembles a commercial campground in a lot of ways. The sites are concrete and very close together with full hookups. Not as much shade over here on this campground. Advantages would be a new bathhouse and since this loop is smaller you would probably find less people on the beach where you would access it. Also, it is smaller than the North Campground. Too far from the Day Use area for most to walk to so the beach would be yours.

The park has a large playground and a nature center. As you drive into the park, you drive across a causeway through the marsh which is a great place to see wildlife and a great place to kayak. There is a paved bike trail that connects to nearby Murrell's Inlet. Good seafood restaurants there and go to Harrelson's Seafood Market if you want to cook you own.

This part of the Myrtle Beach area is not as touristy. Basically, as you leave Huntington Beach State Park if you go North you pretty quickly enter the touristy areas, but if you go South you will less of that.

Other places to visit nearby would be Pawley's Island, Georgetown(old historic town), Hampton Plantation Historic site.

Huntington Beach | South Carolina Parks Official Site

 

Staying at this campground now. Very nice. Definitely would recommend the north loop. North loop has 3 restrooms. One looks fairly recently renovated and until May one is closed for renovation. Whole park seems very well maintained. Reserve early. We could not get 3 nights in a row, even though we booked in early August last year.

 

Thanks for sharing. As a NC native, I’ve been to Myrtle Beach a lot in earlier years. We recently camped at this park in 2019 with the Rustic Trails Teardrop Group. I agree that this park is your best choice for that area. Some call Myrtle Beach “Branson by the Sea” with all the music venues. Alabama used to play at the Bowery at the old Pavilion downtown many years ago before they became famous.