About ten miles south of Myrtle Beach are two great parks, Huntington Beach State Park and Brookgreen Gardens.  Huntington Beach is great for wading bird photography and ocean scenery.  The second, Brookgreen Gardens, is an enormous garden filled with figurative sculptures.  There is something for everybody.

 

1) Huntington Beach State Park

 

The park's freshwater lagoon, salt marsh, maritime forest and beach are outstanding examples of the state's natural coastal environment. These also provide such prime habitat for birds that the park is widely recognized as one of the best birding sites along the East Coast. Surrounded by some 2,500 acres of native flora and fauna, the park offers many observation decks and walking trails to further enhance your enjoyment.

That's not all Huntington Beach State Park has to offer. There's also Atalaya, the picturesque, Moorish-style winter home of Anna Hyatt and Archer Huntington, sculptress and philanthropist, respectively, who left the park and adjacent Brookgreen Gardens as their legacy.

Nature lovers also will enjoy the park's Environmental Education Center and wide variety of programming, including the chance to see loggerhead turtles and other endangered plant and animal species up close. The park's freshwater lake is a sure-fire place to see alligators and sometimes even a mink or two.

 

Admission is $5.00.

 

 

843-237-4440

 

2) Brookgreen Gardens

 

Brookgreen Gardens is the floral jewel of South Carolina's coastal community.  The land is a diverse mix of forested swamps, salt marsh, sandy ridges and fresh tidal swamps.  The 9,200 acre property is a testament to the natural landscapes that surrounded this site in 1921, when Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington, founded Brookgreen Gardens. 

 

Today, Brookgreen Gardens is a National Historic Landmark with the most significant collection of figurative sculpture, in an outdoor setting, by American artists in the world, and has the only zoo accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums on the coat of the Carolinas.

 

Admission is $12.00.

 

Address:

 

1931 Brookgreen Drive

Murrells Inlet, SC  29576

 

843-235-600

800-849-1931 (Toll Free)

 

I have eight rooms reserved at the Holiday Inn Express in Murrell's Inlet, SC., but rooms are going fast.  If the eight rooms are taken, the hotel information is:

 

Holiday Inn Express                                                                                                        

1303 A Tadlock Dr.

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

(843) 357-0100

 

Curtis Gibbens

703-802-6283

gibbensc@nospamverizon.net