South Carolina’s most popular park looks nothing like a popular park

It’s the state’s busiest park

More than a million people visit Hunting Island State Park every year, making it South Carolina’s most popular state park. But you won’t feel it.

The island sits about 15 miles east of Beaufort, 5,000 acres of semitropical barrier land that never got developed.

Five miles of beach, thousands of acres of marsh and maritime forest, a saltwater lagoon, and an ocean inlet spread across the island.

It all sits within the ACE Basin, one of the largest undeveloped estuaries on the East Coast. The best stuff here takes some walking to find.

Lowcountry planters named it for what they did here

Back in the 1800s, wealthy Lowcountry planters used the island as a private hunting preserve, and the name stuck.

It stayed that way until the 1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps came in, built bridges to connect the island to Beaufort, and turned the whole place into a state park. The park opened to the public in 1935.

People started coming right away. But nobody built high-rises or boardwalks, so the island kept its wild feel.

They built the lighthouse so it could be taken apart

The original Hunting Island Lighthouse went up in 1859 and didn’t survive the Civil War.

When they rebuilt it in 1875, they used interchangeable cast-iron sections, each weighing up to 1,200 pounds, so the whole structure could be disassembled and relocated. Good thinking.

By 1888, high tide had crept within 35 feet of the keeper’s house. Crews moved the lighthouse 1.3 miles inland in 1889.

It stands 136 feet tall, and it’s on the National Register of Historic Places.

Climb 167 iron steps to see the whole Lowcountry

You reach the top of the lighthouse by climbing 167 cast-iron steps to a viewing deck.

From up there, the Lowcountry marshland spreads out in every direction, and you can see the Atlantic stretching to the horizon. It’s the only publicly accessible historic lighthouse in all of South Carolina.

An LED lamp now flashes the original 1859 light pattern each night, so even after dark, you get a feel for what the lighthouse looked like when it was still working.

A $3 million fix for crumbling stairs

The lighthouse closed in Feb. 2022 after crews found pieces of the cast-iron stairs breaking off and falling.

The $3 million restoration covers the lantern room, windows, decks, rails, and the full stair system. Exterior work wrapped up in mid-2025, with interior repairs expected to finish in early 2026.

A new ADA-accessible exhibit space will display the restored Fresnel lens once the project is done. You can still walk the grounds and see the lighthouse up close during the work.

Drive through the jungle to reach the white sand

The road into the park cuts through a dense subtropical maritime forest that feels more like a tropical jungle than South Carolina.

When you break through to the coast, five miles of fine white sand and some of the clearest water in the state are waiting. The northern beaches are wider and better for swimming and lying out.

Full-size palmetto trees grow in thick groves right along the shore. Fallen trees and driftwood sit where they land. Nobody cleans it up.

Sun-bleached skeletons line a mile of shore

On the south end, Little Hunting Island holds a stretch of shore called Boneyard Beach. Weathered, sun-bleached trees toppled by erosion and storms scatter along the sand for over a mile.

You cross a pedestrian bridge from the Nature Center Scenic Trail to reach it.

Photographers travel from across the country to shoot the scene, and it looks different every time you go. Wind, waves, and tides keep reshaping the shoreline, so the landscape is never quite the same twice.

Eight miles of trails through forest and salt marsh

The Island Loop Trail runs about six miles through maritime forest and along the saltwater lagoon.

The Marsh Boardwalk, a 0.4-mile wooden walkway and a designated National Recreation Trail, crosses a salt marsh and ends at a deck over a tidal creek where people gather to watch sunsets.

The Maritime Forest Trail takes you deep into the interior, where deer, owls, hawks, and squirrels move through dense vegetation. The Lagoon Trail adds another 1.4 miles along the water.

Loggerheads nest here every summer

Loggerhead sea turtles come ashore each summer and lay between 60 and 130 nests on the beach.

Volunteers with Friends of Hunting Island walk the sand every morning during nesting season to find and protect each one. Alligators hang around the freshwater ponds near the visitor center and along the lagoon.

The saltwater lagoon itself, created by sand dredging in 1968, now holds seahorses and barracuda. You can spot painted buntings, pelicans, herons, egrets, and ospreys throughout the year.

Dolphins show up offshore and from the fishing pier.

Cast a line from a 950-foot pier into Fripp Inlet

The fishing pier stretches 950 feet into Fripp Inlet at the park’s southern tip.

You can fish for redfish, whiting, and croaker without needing a separate saltwater fishing license. The Nature Center sits at the entrance to the pier with live reptiles and exhibits about the island’s habitats.

If you don’t have gear, a tackle loaner program from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources lets you borrow rods and reels. You can also fish Johnson Creek, the lagoon, or surf fish along the beach.

Ted Turner kept this 4,680-acre island to himself for decades

In 1979, Ted Turner bought St. Phillips Island to keep developers off it. He held on to it for nearly 40 years.

South Carolina purchased the 4,680-acre island in 2017, and it’s now managed as part of Hunting Island State Park.

The National Park Service designated it a National Natural Landmark in 1986, one of only six in the state. You can only get there by boat.

Coastal Expeditions runs guided day trips that include a 30-minute ride along the Story River, a tram through old-growth forest, and time on the beach.

Fall asleep to waves from your campsite

The park has about 100 campsites with water and electric hookups, showers, and restrooms. The campground sits inside the maritime forest, and some sites put you close enough to the beach to hear the surf.

Beachfront spots go fast, so reserve yours well ahead of time. A campground store carries limited groceries, snacks, souvenirs, and fishing supplies.

Day visitors can use picnic shelters with electricity and lighting spread throughout the park. A playground keeps younger kids busy between the beach and the trails.

A million visitors a year and it still feels empty

South Carolina’s busiest state park somehow still feels remote.

You can kayak through tidal creeks, search for shells and shark teeth along the shore, or just sit on the sand and watch pelicans coast overhead.

The park runs dolphin watching cruises and has a virtual reality lighthouse experience at the visitor center.

If you or someone in your group needs accessibility help, the park has all-terrain track chairs, Mobi-Mats at beach access points, and accessible restrooms and showers.

Over 250 species of plants and animals live across the island.

Explore Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina

You’ll find Hunting Island State Park at 2555 Sea Island Parkway, about 15 miles east of Beaufort, S.C. The park opens daily at 6 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m., with hours extended to 9 p.m. during Daylight Saving Time.

The Nature Center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission runs $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 6 to 15, and free for kids 5 and under. Beaufort is about a 30-minute drive away.

Charleston sits roughly 88 miles north, and Savannah, Ga., is about 60 miles south.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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