Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet, SC is Full of Adventure

Have you frequented Huntington Seashore Point out Park? If you are looking for an all-in-a person camping knowledge that features the seaside, an abundance of wildlife, a castle, a character middle, and opportunities for studying and journey, Huntington Beach Point out Park in Murrells Inlet is the location. I invested an remarkable few times there and was arranging to return even in advance of I still left. 

The Campground at Huntington Beach front State Park

Huntington Beach State Park is aptly named given that, well, it’s on the beach front. There are two campsites, the north and the south. We stayed in the north campground and it took us all of five minutes to stroll to the large open up sandy beach front. 

The north campground has equally RV websites and tent sites in addition primitive tent web-sites. You can park ideal at the site in any of them other than the primitive kinds, which are a short distance away from your automobile. 

The campground is a combine of spots that have heaps of tree cover and shade and all those that are additional out in the open. I camped in an RV internet site so it had plenty of house for several tents as well as a couple of automobiles. These web pages are fairly shut jointly although and our neighbors were being just a number of toes away. This isn’t a trouble if you have respectful campmates but it can surely be an problem if the men and women upcoming to you are up late and are getting loud. 

The bathrooms have been almost certainly the nicest kinds I had at any time camped at with lots of space and incredibly thoroughly clean. We experienced two bathrooms truly shut to our site, which I constantly enjoy when camping with kids. The web-sites all have hearth pits as effectively. 

Service fees to camp at Huntington Seaside are not low-priced. Hope to pay out at minimum $60 a night time, potentially much more relying on web-site and date. I imagine which is steep for tenting but the things to do at the park genuinely make camping below really worth it. 

Pet dogs are authorized at the park and campgrounds as long as they are leashed. Actually, approximately all the puppies at the park we encountered ended up leashed, which manufactured our stop by that a great deal more pleasant. These were the most liable canine house owners I have at any time arrive throughout! 

The Beach at Huntington Seaside Condition Park

The seashore is roomy and extensive open up. It was under no circumstances crowded. You can accessibility it correct from the campground. There is also an obtain point throughout from the gift shop subsequent to the playground and Atalaya Castle. If you travel further more into the park previous the Nature Centre, you can park in another ton by the picnic region and bathrooms, which is closest obtain to the jetty. 

The jetty is brilliant. Possessing developed up in New Jersey, I’ve experienced my share of jetty encounters and I constantly enjoy discovering them. This jetty is nowhere in the vicinity of as perilous as the kinds I climbed as a kid thankfully. It’s paved on major and huge and extends probably a hundred feet into the ocean. It is just about two miles from the parking lot to the jetty so be ready, specifically with water and treats on a hotter working day. 

The wander over to the jetty was rather incredible. We observed a ton of jellyfish, starfish, crabs, shells, and neat seeking seaweed on the way to the jetty. And then strolling out on it is so stunning. Seeking north, you are going to see Myrtle Seashore and Back garden Town and to the south, you’ll glimpse Pawleys Island. The waves crash versus the rocks on either facet of you and you can watch fishermen and females consider their luck. 

And we bought fortunate for positive. We were equipped to see a fisherman reel in a massive black idea shark! We watched him as he caught it and obtained the hook out of significant jaws. Actually, the young children thought it was actually neat but us adults have been in all probability a lot more thrilled just for the reason that we know how exceptional it is to see anything like this. 

There is a great deal of area to hold out on the sand if you want to just rest and permit the young children participate in in the ocean. Enjoy the tides as very low tide is surely the much better time of working day to hike out to the jetty and back again offered that you’ll likely see far more wildlife and maritime animals and have more beach front to stroll on. 

Tour Atalaya Castle at Huntington Seashore State Park

Exploring Atalaya Castle was a significant highlight of remaining at Huntington Beach Condition Park. The framework is a one particular-story building in a square form with adjoining rooms that encompass a picturesque courtyard. It was the household of Arthur and Anna Huntington, philanthropists and artists, which was created among 1931-1933. The castle has 30 rooms moreover an outside studio, steady, and space where by Anna stored bears, dogs, horses, a leopard, and monkeys for her art jobs. 

The Huntingtons made the castle in a typical Spanish architecture and employed nearby labor, supporting to buttress the financial state in that location. Part of the initial land owned by the Huntingtons provided Brookgreen Gardens, in which the 1st community sculpture garden was set up. Whilst Brookgreen Gardens is not component of the state park, is it close by and you can go to. 

We really liked touring the castle. There are maps obtainable and a little space to the still left of the primary gate that relays the heritage and talks about the Huntingtons. Surely seize the map. The children liked matching the figures of the rooms to those people on the map and currently being our de facto tour guides. 

There is a $2 for each human being charge for visitors ages 6 and up. If you have a SC Point out Park Move, you are admitted cost-free with 4 visitors! A different cause to get a point out park go. Puppies are not authorized in the castle.

Wildlife Encounters

The wildlife at Huntington Beach front Point out Park is considerable. As before long as we established up camp, we headed to the beach access path, which winds by means of a small forest and about a boardwalk, which spans a marsh. We noticed a huge alligator make its way from a compact lake noticeable on one particular section of the boardwalk, by means of the sawgrass and mud, and headed right our way underneath a different component of the boardwalk. The little ones ended up thrilled.

The gator went straight beneath us and meandered by way of the shallow stream till he came throughout a much smaller gator and demonstrated some form of dominant behavior. It was amazing to see. He splashed all around in the water and mainly explained to the other gator to get out of his way (nicely, that’s my interpretation!). 

And proper in the vicinity of there, we also glimpsed a cottonmouth snake in the sawgrass. It was so neat. The next early morning in that similar location, we noticed two non-venomous drinking water snakes and a extra fat bunny. It was much better than a zoo. 

If you like birdwatching at all, this is the location for you. The park suggests that it’s just one of the pretty best birding sites in the entire Southeast. 

Ideal throughout from the Atalaya Castle is a very long route parallel to the canal in which you will enter the park. On both aspect you can see the swamp and there are tons of birds. I know extremely little about birds but thankfully we satisfied a lot of birders who have been practical in pointing out the various sorts of birds we have been wanting at. I might have gotten smarter. 

The Nature Heart

The park also has a totally free Nature Centre, which opened just very last year, exactly where you can touch stingrays and starfish and if you’re blessed, get to see them at mealtime taking in shrimp. We acquired that one particular sort of starfish in fact eats by pushing its tummy out of its entire body, digesting the food stuff there, and then placing its abdomen back again inside its physique. Intellect blown proper there.

The park ranger at the Nature Centre was very beneficial in answering our concerns, of which we had a million since we wanted to know what everything we observed on the beach front was named. The center is great for a homeschool area journey or just for learning far more about the area.

There’s a fantastic, shaded picnic spot ideal next to the Character Center as perfectly a seriously long boardwalk that goes out into the swamp. A huge gator was producing its way together the swamp ground and around the boardwalk that the kids received to go see. We also noticed plenty of birds and oyster beds out there. 

Biking and Hiking

If you can swing it, convey your bikes out to Huntington Beach State Park. There are a large amount of biking trails in the park as very well as around the campgrounds. I would like I experienced brought our bikes but we had been pretty whole in the auto as it was!

There are also a several hiking trails around the park, most of which are good and shaded and have wildflowers and pleasurable, very little obtain details to swamp overlooks. Undoubtedly check them out for a nice wander. 

Traveling to Huntington Beach front Point out Park

We unquestionably advise a pay a visit to to Huntington Seaside State Park in Murrells Inlet. I’m generally shocked by just how attractive South Carolina is, from the seashores of the Lowcountry to the mountains of the Upstate. If you are equipped to take pleasure in a several times of tenting at the park, that’s the way to go since there is just so considerably to discover and enjoy. 

Day by day admission to the park is $8/adults, $4/ages 6-15, $5/seniors. If you have a SC Point out Park all-obtain pass, admission is free for everybody in your vehicle. There is no admission payment charged for tenting. 

It took us about 4.5 several hours to get to the park from Greenville.

Huntington Beach front Condition Park  
16148 Ocean Hwy
Murrells Inlet, SC