SC State Park Hunting Island State Park

Located on the coast of South Carolina near Beaufort, SC. This is the southern most tip of South Carolina which means the weather is pretty similar to northern Florida. Beaufort is old, historic town with a lot great places to check out in the area including the city of Beaufort, Hilton Head Island and anyone with a connection to the US Marine Corps knows Parris Island & the Marine Corps Air Station are located there too. And if you have any Pat Conroy books, this was where he lived and set many of stories in the area like The Great Santini. You can sample the Gullah culture out on St. Helena Island in the Frogmore community and at the Penn Center which is part of the newly created Reconstruction Era National Monument. Savannah, GA is about a 45 minute drive and Charleston, SC is about 1.5 hours away.

As for Hunting Island State Park, it is about 15 miles outside of Beaufort on one of the barrier islands. The park takes up the whole island so there is no commercial development on it. The campground is right on the beach and you will need to carefully pick your site. This area was hit by Hurricane Michael in 2017 and the front part of the campground suffered a lot of damage, losing a lot of sites in the process. I would pick one of the sites further away from the beach. You will have shade in the hot months that way and be protected from the winds that can blow pretty hard on the coast too. The sites that are left nearer to the beach lost a lot of trees and are pretty exposed to sun, wind and your neighbors. Sites are gravel with picnic table and fire ring with attached grill. There are pull through and back in. The back in sites near the rear of the campground will offer you more privacy. Showers are available in the bathrooms throughout the campground.

The rest of the park is really stunningly beautiful. There is a lighthouse that you can climb to the top (165 steps) but it is not a bad climb as you ascend 20 or steps and reach a platform so you gather yourself. The area where you park nearby is also one of the areas where the public can park to go to the beach so it can be crowded at times. If you have a bike I would ride over from the campground or you could walk to it too. There are places nearby to rent a bike and the island is very flat so riding will be easy.

Parking at the South Beach access area is another option for going out on the beach. You may see horses on the beach in this area and there are some trail ride companies in the area too. One of things to see in this area is a large lagoon. You can access it from the beach side or from the either side. This was a great area for wildlife viewing. We watched pelicans dive bombing a dolphin who fought back by slapping its tail on the water's surface. When the dolphin would blow air out of its blow hole, we could hear it. A great area for fishing and photography.

The park has a great trail system that will take you into the interior of the island which is covered in tall Longleaf Pines and Palmetto trees. Many of the trails able to be ridden by bicycles. On the marsh side of island there is a walk that you will take you out into the marsh via a boardwalks that connect a series of small islands.

If you want seafood, there are 2 options. There are a ton of restaurants but if you want to cook at your camper, there are a lot of road side places to buy shrimp, oysters and fish that will locally caught on Harbor Island and St. Helena Islands. You have to drive across both of these to get to Hunting Island and there are several of these places 10 minutes from the campground. And if you never had Frogmore Stew (sometimes called Lowcountry Boil) give it a try. The name comes from the Frogmore community and the ingredients include Shrimp, Smoked Sausage, Potatoes, and Corn on the Cob with Old Bay seasoning. After it is cooked, it is poured out on a table covered in newspaper traditionally, so it is served outdoors.

Hunting Island | South Carolina Parks Official Site

 

Camped in site 146 and was not bad but you do back up to site on the backside of the loop. We made last minute reservations when someone canceled so we had little choice. One area I would not want to be on are the sites right at the front. They back up to entrance road and have little or no shade from damage from a recent hurricane plus a few of them flooded pretty badly too.

We did have an overnight storm one night, so we walked the campground the next day checking which sites flood. Mostly, it was the front but there were a few others. If you are making reservations, you are welcome to check with us to see if sites you are looking would have flooding issues.

Nice well stocked campstore at the entrance of the campground. The beach is really wide even at low tide and are far enough away from the day use area on the beach that you won't have contact with them unless you walk down to the lighthouse. The park has a nice trail system in it and some of the trails are bike trails.

This is one we will definitely return to both for the scenery and it is pretty laid back and quiet. Beaufort is nice place to check out too.