On Wednesday morning we woke up and got ready for the day. The sun was out at least, but once again, the forecast called for a really chilly and very windy day so once again, the beach was probably out. Instead of driving out of town to the beach, we decided to drive about two hours South to the historic town of Beaufort, SC and Hunting Island State Park.
We arrived at the State park right around lunch so we made sandwiches and ate them in the parking lot while we looked at the trail maps and talked about what we wanted to do. According to the map, there was one trail that went out to a fishing pier. Then if we went there other direction from the parking lot, we could take a main trail down to the beach or branch off on other trails to walk to a nature center or camping sights. We decided that we would start off by walking the pier and then we would come back and walk the other trail down to the beach after that. Let me just say that the wind was absolutely crazy! Wow! It was SO windy and the winds just continued to get stronger and stronger the farther out on the pier that we got. Needless to say, we only stayed there long enough to look off the side of the pier and then we turned back around and walked right back to the parking lot.
Noel had to put his hood up just so his hat didn't blow away
We did have a nice view of the water though
OR...maybe the wind was blowing SO hard that the sand was blowing across the dunes and blowing right into their faces and stinging their cheeks and burning their eyes and they realized that it wasn't the relaxing day at the beach that they had envisioned? LOL
Do you see the "trails" of white that are coming towards the camera that almost look like ripples? That is actually sand just blowing at 35 mph right into our faces!!
Not ones to be deterred too easily, we decided to push through and go all the way to the ocean and see if it got any better with the trees there to block the wind. Surprisingly, the closer to the water that we got, the better it seemed to get because the sand was wet and didn't blow around as much. Once we got down to the water, we were able to look around and see the fallen trees and the beautiful scenery and so we decided to make the best of it and hang around the water for a while.
Brrr! The water was cold! And we couldn't walk out into the waves very far as there were a lot of stumps and branches buried under the water. There were also a lot of sharp shells embedded into the sand, so we definitely had to watch where we were standing.
After a little while, we decided to cross the bridge and head back to the mainland where we could walk a couple of other trails. We saw that they had several "easy" trails that were about a half mile each and then if we walked a couple of those, we could finally come up on the "Rattlesnake" trail and that trail was a more rugged trail that was over two miles long. We decided to do all of the trails and then after we had completed them all, we would make our way back to the car. For the most part, none of the trails were very rugged at all but we saw a lot of unique flowers and plants and at one point, we walked into a clearing and were surrounded by a lot of colorful butterflies.
These weeds looked like dandelions except that they were about three foot tall!
And the Spanish Moss that is just everywhere!!
It took us about three hours to walk all of the trails in the park so we got back into the car and drove a couple of miles up the road to the lighthouse that had been highly recommended. Once again, it had a pretty backdrop, but unfortunately, the lighthouse and any other shops in the area were all closed and under renovation. We were able to walk the grounds and read all of the signs and markings, but we weren't able to go into it.
This was one of the supporting buildings on the property where the family probably kept oil for the light. The main house had burned down however and only the foundation remained.
At least there was a playground there for the "kids" to play ... sort of. LOL
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With the Hunting Island State Park now complete, we would head back towards the historic town of Beaufort, S.C. Our Charleston friend had given us the name of some church ruins that were scattered along our route, so we decided to stop at a couple of those first as we made our way back.
The first stop was called "Saint Helena Parish Chapel of Ease". This small parish was built by planters in 1740 for people of the main congregation who were unable to make it all the way to the main church in Beaufort due to distance. Since the church was erected by cotton farmers and plantation owners, it was built out of oyster shells and lime, which hardened in the sun and then caused the church to almost "glow" in the sun. By 1812, the population of the area had grown so much that the small parish was named as an official anglican church and it served its church members for many years. During the Civil War, many plantation owners were forced to flee their homes, leaving the churches and city buildings behind to deteriorate from neglect and non-use. Toward the end of the war, the Union forces took over the empty church and begin to use it as a place of safety for the now freed slaves and others in the community could also come to the church to receive food and other necessary items. Unfortunately, in 1886, a forest fire came through the area and burned the church. Despite the valiant efforts of the residents, everything inside of the church was destroyed, leaving only the outside walls which still remain to this day.
Here is the beautiful moss covered "Oak Alley" as you approach the abandoned church.
I took a picture of the tabby construction... the oyster shells and lime that was used.
After we spent a couple of minutes at the Parish, we jumped back into the car and continued driving towards home. The next stop along the way was the Old Sheldon Church Ruins. This church is another smaller parish built during the Greek Revival Style back in 1745 and was paid for by Prince William, even being called "Prince Williams' Church" at it's beginning. It was an absolutely gorgeous work of architecture back in the 1700's but unfortunately, it wasn't used very long before the British soldiers burned it in 1779 during the Revolutionary War. In 1826, it was rebuilt and returned to its original glory, only to be burned down again by General Sherman during the Civil War. Today, this building stands untouched on the same ground surrounded by graves of those early congregation members. It is now used for wedding ceremonies, photographers, and ghost hunters, and once a year (the second Sunday after Easter) a group meets here to hold an annual praise and worship service.
There were gravestones just placed at random places around the edges of the property. I found this stone off on one of the edges and I took a picture of it because of my maiden name being on it. "It actually was spelled Mikel with two "L"s but I photoshopped the second "L" off of it for fun. We can pretend that we were related, right? LOL
Some of the other tombstones were enclosed behind the church with a wrought iron fence. One of those markers read 1754 as the date of death and the young man had died in his 20's. I know that people were alive back in the 1700's obviously, but it's still hard to actually wrap my mind around it until I see the dates written out.
We had two or three other ruins on our list of places to visit, but someone was very tired and we were all getting hungry, so we decided to drive back into Beaufort and look for something to eat. Unfortunately, when we arrived in Beaufort and found parking, we discovered that the Riverwalk was closed for construction and renovation and most of the restaurants had long lines and waiting lists so we just decided to call it a day and make the drive back to Charleston. We ended up stopping at a grocery store on our way into town so we could pick up groceries to take back to the house and we just crashed there for the rest of the night.
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