South Carolina

The Palmetto State

August 2018

Riverfront Park with the iconic pineapple fountain

We arrived in South Carolina earlier than expected, but maybe deep inside we wanted to skip over Georgia? After a quick stop over to Sullivan’s Island Beach for our pooch to stretch her legs, we headed for Colleton State Park for few nights before exploring Middleton Place and Magnolia Plantation in coming days.

Sullivan’s Island Beach supposes to be dog friendly, but dog rules are unfriendly!
Au revoir to the simple and not elegant “Charleston Light”

The first real attraction we visited in South Carolina was Middleton Place. Known for its expansive and first formal landscape in the United States, it started out as primary resident for John Williams in 1730, and through many of Williams generations afterward, various iterations were made to the main house and flankers. Beginning of 1809, from country residence it changes to an active rice plantation in hope striking it rich from “Carolina Gold” rice. Some African slaves from “Rice Coast” or “Winward Coast” were used extensively for the cultivation of rice due to their specialty (see Note1).

Meticulously restored in 1925 by Middleton descendent, the House Museum is now National Registry of Historic Places
Plantation Chapel midafternoon reflection in the Mill Pond
The Mill constructed in 1851 as crop storage facility near Butterfly Lakes
A painful look inside of a slave quarter
Mixed slaves were forced to make soap, flour, hides tanning, textile, carpentry, planting sugar and rice fields
Horse Mounted Fox Hunts are held from November to March in the Middleton Place Hounds
Sheep roam free on Greensward lawn with the House Museum in the background
This is one smart horse; will act on verbal commands instead of a pair of reins
Typical 2-family slave house (left) and out-of-place modern designed Pavilion (right)

Just 4 miles down the Ashley River Road, the Magnolia Plantation is like no other plantations in the south. This plantation used African slaves exclusively to work their rice fields, and from the depth of their slavery, a new creolized Gullah language and Gullah Geechee Cuisine were born. The plantation ground is also pet friendly.

Plantation home was rebuilt after burned down during Civil War
It always pleasurable to able to walk with our pooch through Magnolia beautiful garden
Red footbridge over an algae pond. Yep! Lots of mosquitoes
Beautiful cypress pond without the precious azalea for they only bloom in early spring
White footbridge over cypress pond
Ashley River creates natural boundary for Magnolia Garden and also serves as a highway for cruising alligators

Drove 15 miles eastward to one of the oldest oaks in South Carolina. The 400 years Angel Oak still living in South Carolina in rural Johns Island near the town of Charleston. The 65 ft tall oak casts 17,200 sqft shade from its 25 ft circumference trunk.

Local folks recount their encounters with spirits of anguished slaves underneath the shaded oak
Some branches reach out to 187 ft from the massive trunk

Hoping to visit various attractions in North Charleston, we stayed at Buck Hall Recreation Area for 2 days. From Riverfront Park in North Charleston, we’ve taken the Arthur Ravenel Jr. bridge to get to Atalaya Castle.

Riverfront Park with the iconic pineapple fountain attracts swimmers of all ages
Splash fountain is a popular cool off spot during summer months

It’s endearing to we see kids and adults having fun in water fountains here and start wondering why elsewhere water fountains made such a big fuss over occasional dips.

The beautiful Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge doesn’t have any vista point at either end of the bridge, so fleeting view can only be had at Mount Pleasant Visitor Center, but this may also be wrong viewing angle. Or pay $20 to enter Patriot Point for the bridge viewing best spot as well as tours of the USS York Town retired battleship and other historical interests.

Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge view from Mount Pleasant Visitor Center

Almost 80 miles later, we arrived at Atalaya Castle in Huntington Beach State Park. The Atalaya was architected without architecture plans by the owner himself, Archer Huntington. The winter house was built for ailing Anna Huntington, who was also an American prominent sculptor from 1902 to 1936.

Palmettos lined the Atalaya Castle entrance
Courtyard facing Cook’s, Servant’s and Housekeeper’s quarters
Beautifully ventilated brick wall on the paved courtyard
Tower rises above the grassy courtyard
Breakfast and dinning room wing (left) with supposedly beach view in the back

The nearby white sand Huntington Beach hold mildly interest for its dark blue-grayish and tint of the murky ocean. But if the name Huntington (beach, park, and hotel) ring a bell for Californians, because it was honored after this Huntington family.

North Beach in Huntington State Park
A lofty and beautiful restroom on North Beach Access

Heading west from Buck Hall Recreation Area, we drove 100 miles west to Poinsett State Park and stayed for 3 days recuperating from a nasty Buck Hall restroom. The primitive look of the Poinsett State Park belied its clean restroom was exactly what we needed when camping. But that night, the thunderstorm caught up with us. Pouring rain and deafening thunders kept us up for a while, while our pooch slept like a baby throughout the whole commotion.

Thunder lighted up dark sky behind lone RV at a distance
Thankfully the rain clears up to a spectacular morning
Warm weather also brings the black racer (foreground) searching for a quick meal

The Poinsett State Park was built during the Great Depression, at which time Americans needing jobs, hope, and affordable recreation. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) offered all three. By putting men to work developing the park, this federal program provided income and training as it created a beautiful park that we enjoyed today.

Shaded from hot sun and strong WiFi breath some civilizations to us travelers
Completed with a 10ft tall cascading waterfall near the visitor center

Swing by an iconic Broadway at the Beach for a visit. At a distance, the inverted Wonderworks building surely caught our attention.

A creative way of viewing the world
Hamster wheel for human?

Drove 41 miles to Congaree National Park, we can’t wait to see the hardwood forest with its raised boardwalks. After all, the Congaree National Park has miles and miles of trails like these connecting all its point of interests, or so we thought!

Our pooch loves boardwalk, for squire chaotic life style has been her favorite attractions
The boardwalk elevated a little more than 10ft from the swamp below

But after walking for miles with the same view everywhere without a specific point of interest, we gave up and headed back to town.

Swing by the local market, we picked up a few essential for today’s dinner. What would be better than ground pork and shrimp stuffed mushrooms sautéed in butter, then pair with pan seared well-seasoned salmon fillets with citrus-flavored lemon slices for an overcast day such as this?

Pork and shrimp stuffed mushrooms and pan seared lemon salmon made a fulfilling dinner

Driving 182 miles west from Poinsett State Park, we arrived at Keowee-Toxaway State Natural Campground. This park boasts a variety of outdoor activities; kayaking, swimming, biking, and of course hiking. Although plenty of steep hills made for biking fun, on a hot day like today we’d prefer to a wetter experience.

Kayaking in many of Lake Keowee arms was refreshing due to clean and clear water
Resting at half-way point on one of Lake Keowee beach before continuing our adventure

The weather doesn’t let up on the following day however, it rained hard at times. What do we do when the heavy southern rain was ruining our day? We made piping hot soup ginger flavored soup with chicken and chayote squash. A side dish of seared Everglade seasoned pork strips to completed the meal while we coupe up in our Cozy Snail.

Oh yeah! hot soup in a cold wet day is our recipes for happiness!

With the weather clearing up, we visited a small scenic park near the border of North Carolina called Paris Mountain State Park. The park got its interesting name from a simple typo of a man named Richard Pearis. The stories about Pearis vary greatly, and none painted a flattering picture of this Indian trader which owned more than 1,000 acres by questionable means including this Paris mountain.

Not a true waterfall, but water spilling over the Mountain Lake Dam surely made a soothing sound
Above the dam, the 8-acres Lake Placid is closed due to high level of E. coli bacteria
Beautifully built foot bridge near Lake Placid

About 7 miles south of Paris Mountain State Park, we came to Falls Park on the Reedy. These cascading waterfalls are spectacular for their sight and sound. Located in the middle of Greenville, this park is the center of attraction to the many shopping malls and their dog-friendly policy made for fun window-shopping.

Visitors enjoy the clear view of the falls after the ugly Camperdown Bridge was removed in 2002
The Liberty Footbridge curved away from the falls was under renovation

With all the shopping made us hungry again, so a pick-me-up meal was in order. Swing by Dollar General which was very common site down here, we tossed some frozen seafood, fresh vegetable in our basket and put a meal together for our dinner.

Sautéed baby scallops and shrimps, pan seared flounder, and chicken squash soup

South Carolina the Palmetto State with its romantic flag; crescent moon on top of a palmetto… oh, wait! It’s not a crescent moon, just a crescent shape which referencing the emblem on soldier cap during the Revolutionary War with the British. Now, that just crushing our romantic notion of South Carolina.

What evoke your imagination?

Near the northern side of South Carolina, we recognized the incredible invasive kudzu plants growing everywhere on the building, telephone poles, on tree forest similarly to the Mississippi landscape. But that’s wasn’t the only thing covering the trees around here; there was some weird fall webworm bundling the branch leaves altogether with their gray silk threads like giant spider webs everywhere.

These fall webworm moth caterpillars eat foliage and fruit, then discard their feces down below
Or as high as tree tops above our campsite

And if you are unwittingly to be below them, hundreds of small black fecal matters will soon be dusting your table and anything you put on top of it.

Thank you fall webworm caterpillars for all your mess! Leaving all the persistent kudzu plant behind, nasty fall webworm caterpillars, and South Carolinian incredibly salty boiled peanuts, and incrediblely complex dog rules… perhaps we maybe safer in North Carolina?

GPS Coordinates

  1. Colleton State Park – 33°03’45.4″N 80°36’58.1″W
  2. Middleton Place – 32°54’03.3″N 80°08’20.3″W
  3. Magnolia Plantation – 32°52’21.2″N 80°05’21.4″W
  4. Riverfront Park, North Charleston – 32°52’12.2″N 79°57’57.8″W
  5. Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge – 32°48’06.2″N 79°54’09.1″W
  6. Atalaya Castle – 33°30’06.5″N 79°04’03.4″W
  7. Poinsett State Park – 33°48’16.4″N 80°32’53.7″W
  8. Paris Mountain State Park – 34°56’26.4″N 82°23’16.8″W
  9. Falls Park on the Reedy – 34°50’42.1″N 82°24’03.4″W

References

  • Note1 – The Gullah: Rice, Slavery, and Sierra Leone-American Connection, Joseph A. Opala, Yale University, 2018
  • Destination details from local knowledge, some were extracted from hand-out literature/brochure, or website, and Wikipedia
  • Coordinates are from Google map in Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds (DMS)