Hunting Island

State Park

NEW HUNTING ISLAND VIRTUAL TOUR

 

By Keith Strawn

Lowcountry Real Estate

 

A day spent at Hunting Island State Park is a day well-spent.

If you visit Beaufort, you need to visit this 3000-acre, oceanfront state park. Little wonder the this semi-tropical wonderland is the most visited park in the South Carolina system.

Even in the dead of winter, on a clear, cold day, Beaufortonians will pack up their children and lunch and head out for a few hours of seaside fun.

In the summer, as you might expect, Hunting Island turns into one of the most popular beaches in South Carolina.

From it's historic light house (the only one in South Carolina open to the public), to it's oceanfront maritime forest, to its miles of nature trails and beaches, there is plenty to do at Hunting Island State Park.

In the spring and summer, campers and RVs from around North America converge on the park, as campers get their week in paradise. Even locals from Beaufort and the surrounding Lowcountry can be found spending their vacation just 19 miles east of Historic Beaufort.

The lighthouse is something else. Built before the Civil War, and destroyed during that conflict, the lighthouse was moved inland, due to beach erosion, to its current location prior to the turn of the 20th Century. The lighthouse's days as a functioning maritime aid to ships traveling up and down the coast ended years ago, but it still functions as one heckuva tourist destination. For $4, visitors can walk to the top of the tower, and enjoy breathtaking, above-tree-top views of the park's maritime forest.

And speaking of the park's forest, it is something else to see. The forest is so lush and pristine that it doubled as Asian jungle scenes in Forrest Gump, and Disney's The Jungle Book.

.From the camping area, the beach is an easy walk away. Fising in the lagoon is wonderful, and on certain days, area surfers will surf the waters off Hunting Island.

For additional information on Hunting Island State Park, feel free to email Keith at kstrawn@lowcountryrealestate.com, or call 843.263.6886.