Hunting Island State Park - Hunting Island, South Carolina (November 2019)

When we camped here in 2014, the park’s volunteers greeted us with, “Welcome to paradise!”  There was no such greeting this time.

Sign at the park

We were shocked to see all of the beachfront sites were gone along with most of the trees in that section. Hurricanes and storms have taken a toll on this park.

The old beachside loop

Also among the missing was the maritime forest that we found to be very interesting during our first visit. It is somewhat ironic that the majority of the park’s destruction came from Hurricane Michael, the same storm that leveled Port St Joe Peninsula State Park on Florida’s Gulf Coast. It was sad to see two state parks, one on the Gulf Coast and the other along the Atlantic, were damaged by the same hurricane.

The beach

The loop we camped in the last time was about six rows of campers back from the beach. Those sites are now as close as you can get to the ocean.

Rosie in the campground

Another photo of Rosie in the campground

Bits of asphalt and disconnected wires from the old campsites were visible along the beach. These reminders of destroyed sites were under water during high tides. 

It was easy to see where the beachside loop was before Hurricane Michael

Two of the things that were the same from our earlier visit were the mosquitoes and raccoons. We learned how important it was to quickly open and shut the door to keep flying pests out of Rosie, our Airstream trailer. 

Our 2019 Southeast Coast WBCCI Caravan was able to attend morning colors and graduation ceremonies for approximately 500 new United States Marines on the training base at Parris Island. It was inspiring to ride around the base watching Marine recruits in training and to see the newest Marines graduate from basic training.

Morning Colors at Parris Island

Graduation at Parris Island

Drill Instructors wait for their platoons to arrive for graduation

Pass and review at graduation

As our caravan group was riding on a bus to Parris Island, I couldn’t help but think about the last time I was on a bus in South Carolina heading to a military basic training facility. I remembered the names of my Drill Sergeants and the head Drill Sergeant screaming at us to get off “his” bus and how a certain part of our anatomy belonged to him. He also emphasized that we needed to quickly move that part of our anatomy off his bus. 

Looking back, it seemed as if drill sergeants tended to believe they owned everything and I was not going to challenge that assumption then or now.

Sign at Parris Island

A Marine Corporal served as our host on the base. He was knowledgeable and a great example of a U.S. Marine. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site was a back-in
• Our site was paved with gravel 
• We had to use leveling tools to correct a left-to-right lean
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service
• Our site had a water connection with low pressure problems 
• Our site did not have a sewer connection
• There were two dump stations in the park 
• The bathhouse near our site was clean and well maintained 
• We were able to occasionally watch ABC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna as the signals tended to drift in and out—mostly out
• We were able to occasionally watch TV digital channels Bounce and Grit 
• AT&T placed one bar of service for voice and data over our site 
• The campground provided WiFi service that never seemed to work for us
• The campground had a good and well stocked store

The Hunting Island lighthouse

Campstore

Visiting a Kazoo factory while in the area

We enjoyed a horse-drawn carriage ride around Beaufort