Sunrise Sunset

Hunting Island State Park

Site #90

Beaufort, S. C.

I was up and out this morning for sunrise on the ocean front which is only a few hundred yards away and although we can't see it from our site, we can definitely hear it.

While I was there, I ran into a couple I'd met the day before, Carolyn and Dave Crighton, who happened to be from Richmond Virginia.  Richmond is about 90 minutes from our home for the past 30 years but as I'm sure you all know, when you are traveling in a foreign country, anyone from the US is a buddy,  and in a distant campground anyone from your state is a friend.   We talked for quite a while as we have a great deal in common and then went on our separate ways.

I think they went paddling and I went out to run the Magnolia Forest trail.   Here's a snap of the trail that I took later in the day since I don't run with my camera but as you can see it is a great place to run.

While out on the run, I ran over to the beach and ran into the Crighton's again.  Now that's 3 times just on a happenstance that we've run into each other in less than 24 hours.  Pretty neat!

Got back and grabbed some breakfast so we could get out and take a hike.  Not sure why after nearly 5 miles of running I wanted to hike another 8 but that's what we did.

Thought you might like to see David's great looking breakfast.  If it looks good, here's his recipe 

1 C Mesa Sunrise flakes (flax, corn, quinoa & amaranth) organic made by Nature’s Path Foods ,

¼ C pomegranate seeds,

½ C low fat French vanilla, 

 6 chopped almonds (no I didn't even go there but I'm wondering why six???) 

Stir.  J

We got set for the hike and walked outside past the car when David noticed what he thought were kitty prints in the dust/sand on the car hood.  But nope not kitty prints.  This is a blow up of the print and it's not a hand.  We aren't sure who was walking on the car.  Any guesses??

We set off from the marsh boardwalk trail parking lot so that we could end up there for the sunset at the end of the day.  The park's signs are interesting.  Some have no indication which trail you are on and some have more than enough as you'll see in a minute.  This one was "just right".

 On the trail

Trails intersect.  You for sure know what your choices are at this point.   J

The Marsh trail led to the lagoon which was created in 1968 by sand dredging to try to shore up the beaches.  The Vietnam scenes from Forrest Gump were filmed here.

We hope to see it from the water tomorrow.

We walked out to the sandy bank and saw these clear prints.  We think these may be the ones on my car although that's pretty hard to believe.  Can you help us out?  What do you think?

On down the trail we came to the bridge near the mouth of the lagoon that crosses over to the other side.

Such a beautiful day for this hike.  Another blue sky day!!

We crossed over the bridge

and just a short way down the path we came across this sign.

And we soon found out why.  The park has, well make that had, 15 fabulous ocean front cabins but a powerful storm destroyed most of them and damaged the rest.  Only those facing the lagoon and not the ocean were not damaged.

The devastation as you can see was extensive and it's very sad to lose such great vacation spots as these.

I hope you can tell from these shots that the next two cabins are out in the ocean.  They were not destroyed like the first two but the land underneath them was totally washed away.

We could only go so far down the trail until we had to turn around.  So we went back to where the road was still there and walked over to the nature center. 

I totally forgot to get a picture of the center from the outside but the inside was fantastic.  The naturalist and volunteers had done a terrific job with displays, exhibits and educational activities, tanks, skeletons and information on all of the creatures around Hunting Island.   The space is actually very small.  Just one room but it is used to its very best advantage.  Great information in glass cases, tanks, on the ceiling, on the walls.  Everywhere.  I could have stayed for hours and not looked at it all.  Kudos to the staff here.  More on them later.   But here is the resident cutie.  Can't remember her name and she for sure had one as did all the snakes and other creatures who make the nature center their home.

Just look at her shell.  Isn't that magnificent?

Speaking of the staff, here they are.  Jennifer Milbert who is on the Nature Center staff and is doing a fabulous job of redoing the exhibits including painting a palm tree in the middle of the room which I didn't get on film since it wasn't finished yet.  But "next time"   J.

And Tyson Milbert who volunteers to do the reef and oyster tanks which are just amazing.  Did you know that an oyster can filter 2 gallons of water an hour.   WHAT???   The Nature Center staff takes half the clean water out of their 20 gallon tank every day and refills it with sea water and the oysters clean it daily.  Just imagine how our Chesapeake Bay could look if we'd stop polluting more than the oysters can clean and take more care in the harvesting of oysters.

It was great to talk to Jennifer and Tyson who sold their businesses and relocated  to Beaufort from Baltimore, Maryland not very long ago in the same sort of live your dreams and the life you love move that we  have done in a different way.  Like us, they are both totally happy that they followed their hearts which led them to Beaufort and the Nature Center.  I know the park must be thrilled to have them.

 Here are some creatures in the tanks. I just LOVE starfish and this is a beauty.  I stood there for quite some time and just watched him crawl along the sandy bottom.  .

And then there was this feather duster worm   Nature is JUST AMAZING

Tyson put his hand in the tank and just barely touched the duster which the worm immediately pulled inside and there was no sign of it at all.  A minute or so later, back out it came.  Like I said, amazing!!

We closed the Nature Center down and had to hustle over to the Marsh Boardwalk to catch the sunset.  We took a piece of the Diamondback Rattlesnake Trail which was closed due to someone getting lost on it back in the spring after the forest service had cut a firebreak that crossed over and beside the trail.  It confused us a little too but there were pink ties on the trees so we didn't really have any trouble.

If David looks like he is hustling, he is! J But we made it just in time.

So here are two of the nearly 100 pictures we took of this gorgeous sunset. I particularly liked the soft pastel colors that came after the blaze of orange had fallen below the horizon. J

What a life this is!!   Tomorrow we plan to paddle out to the lagoon and see it from the water.  Hope you'll join us.