Lucky for us we woke up to a sunny Monday morning and had the whole day to check out the other parts of the park. There are 3 different areas at Hunting Island and we hiked over to see the Lighthouse near the Visitor Center. The walk is through a forest of pines, oaks and palmettos with no one around. The park once had over 70 cabins but now this is the only remaining one on the island.
The lighthouse has such an interesting history, especially in 1888 when it was reported that the tide had reached within 35 feet of the keeper's house. The Lighthouse had been designed to be disassembled and moved if required, and as a result, the Lighthouse, keeper's home and two other structures were relocated a mile away in 1889 to its present location. It is made of cast iron sections, each weighing 1200 pounds which are bolted together to form the shell. The shell is lined with brick which creates the main load bearing element. It is also one of the few lighthouses in the state of South Carolina that you can actually climb its 167 steps to walk outside for a fantastic view of the entire area.
For our return to the campground we took the scenic beach walk with its beautiful silvery weathered trees tossed about as if they were toothpicks.
It makes such beautiful landscape, not being a totally empty beach at this part of the park. Constant storms erode the beach and shoreline tearing out many of the existing trees.
The sky was much prettier as we walked back, I'm always happy when the gray chilly skies open up to this beautiful blue.
The following day the cool, wet, drippy weather was back so it was perfect to see one of the Oscar-winning films, Philomena. Since we are in a tiny area of the state, the nearest theater was almost 20 miles away. And with a showing time of 11:30 we had the theater almost to ourselves.
After lunch at a nearby grill we drove on into the little artsy town of Bluffton, first stop at a garden shop of course.
From there we followed the historical markers to this beautiful church, The Church of the Cross, built in 1854. Exposed timbers, English rose colored glass and latticed shutters make it a stunning structure overlooking the May River.
It is still an active church community today and celebrated its 150th Anniversary in 2004
The original one square mile of Old Town Bluffton is now an eclectic arts district, fun to just walk around.
There's still so much more to see in this beautiful part of South Carolina but Thursday was time for us to be on duty with our hosting work once again.
1 comment:
You have sure seen some beautiful places! Way to go.
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