We found this state park in Murrell’s Inlet, SC on one of our earlier road trips. It’s a bit south of Myrtle Beach and we consider it to be one of our happy places. Has everything we need. Spacious campsites, miles of beach to walk, run or bike. Surf and jetty fishing. Birdwatching, good bike paths. And it doesn’t hurt that Murrells Inlet is known as the Seafood Capital of South Carolina.
We first arrived here on Nov 10 and stayed until the 21st. We walked….alot. Fished….alot. Caught lots of fish……NOT! Not a single keeper our entire time. Oh well, as we heard someone say, a bad day fishing is better than a good day working. No arguement from us!
A tidbit about the park, the land used to be owned by Archer Huntington, (son of transportation magnate, Collis P. Huntington...no clue who he was?) and his wife Anna Hyatt Huntington a noted sculptor. I tell you this because they built their winter home (called Atalaya) here in the 1930’s and it’s still within the park so you can tour it for $2. They donated it and the land for the park in 1960.
This couple was loaded. They also donated land for Brookgreen Gardens, right across from the park. It's a HUGE garden that showcases many of the sculptures created by Anna Huntington as well as many other artists. We hadn’t visited it in our previous stays but this time I managed to convince Dave to go. Well worth going to if you’re ever in the area. You can check out their website for more info on it as well as its history if interested. When we were there, they were getting ready for their ‘Nights of a thousand candles” display. The event is a big deal here.
Here’s some pics from around the park and our attempts to catch fish.
Here’s the pics from Brookgreen Gardens.