May 2022 – Epic Tour through Life

May 23, 2022May 23, 2022

Huntington Beach State Park & Murrells Inlet – April 24 – 28

Huntington Beach State Park, 2500 acres of land, includes a freshwater lagoon, saltmarsh, maritime forest and beach. The park has a nature center a campground, boardwalks, hiking trails, beach and an historic landmark, and Alytalia Castle. It was originally the land and summer home location of Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington. The “castle”, their home, is open to the public to tour and also for weddings and events.

The campground includes 173 campsites with water and electricity. There is a newer section which is all fully paved sites with full-hook-ups (water, electricity and sewer). Those sites are closer together and that section has a laundry facility. We stayed in the older section at a spacious, fairly private site.

The park is a popular birding destination , with over 300 bird species that have been seen in the park. We had five great days at this park. We really enjoyed the beautiful beach, pond, salt marsh, birds, crabs and alligators.

It was great to be at the Marsh Walk with no pandemic restrictions and a little more activity than last year. We also had perfect weather. Next stop – Cedar Island, NC!

(For more photos, see the post for Apr 23-29, 2021)

Huntington Beach State Park, Murrells Inlet, SC

Inside the Mullet Hut, home of Mullet, the cat. Murrells Inlet Marsh Walk

Mullet, the cat looking for fish scraps at Murrells Inlet Marsh Walk

Murrells Inlet Marsh Walk (photo taken April 2021)

May 23, 2022May 23, 2022

Savannah & Skidaway Island – April 22 – 23

Skidaway Island State Park is about 15 miles from Savannah. The park has several hiking trails, a visitor center, gift shop and 87 pull-through campsites with water, electric and cable. We spent our first day hiking and checking out the visitor center. We’ve heard that the noseeums can be bad there, but we had no problem in cool, breezy weather.

Our second day, we drove into Savannah. Last year, we spent 2 days walking through all 22 squares, the riverfront and Forsyth Park (roughly 10 – 11 miles, since we walked to some areas twice). This year we decided to take a trolley tour, expecting we might learn more about Savannah. Most trolley tours allow you to get on and off the trolleys all day, so it’s a great way to see the entire historic district in one day. We didn’t feel that we learned $40 dollars worth of history, but we did get to see most of the area more quickly. We walked along the waterfront, listened to some live music and met up with our friend, Linda, who happened to be in the area. It was fun to catch up with our friend from the Detroit standup paddle race days.

It was a great place to spend a couple of days, on our way to Murrells Inlet.

Huge pull-thru campsite at Skidaway Island State Park

Skeleton of a Giant Ground Sloth in the visitor center at Skidaway island state park. These creatures were in North America during the last ice age, which was11,700 years to 2.6 million years ago.

Savannah City Hall. Designed by architect Hyman Witcover, the building was built between 1904 and 1905.

Forsyth Park. The tall statue is the Confederate Monument, which commemorates Savannah’s “Confederate Dead.” The smaller statue is Lafayette McLaws, who was a major general in the Confederate Army. This is one of many confederate monuments in the country, that have been vandalized in recent years. I wonder if some of the stains are a result of the spray paint.

One of hundreds of participants in the SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) annual chalk art festival in Forsyth Park

The Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist. It is the oldest Catholic Church in Georgia

The Waving Girl Statue on the Savannah waterfront. Florence Martus (1868-1943) is remembered by this statue showing her greeting ships as they came in.

May 18, 2022August 17, 2022

Rodman Recreation Area & return to Flagler Beach April 15 – 21, 2022

Near the end of our time on Amelia Island, we were watching the weather forecast of rain for Savannah and Charleston, our next two destinations. We managed to find an opening back at Flagler Beach, where the forecast looked great. We delayed going to Savannah and canceled Charleston. We had been to Charleston twice in the past few years and we really weren’t looking forward to the stressful driving in the area or finding parking for our HD truck.

We spent one night at the Rodman recreation area. It was a weekend and there were many large groups of campers, including people fishing. The reservoir is well-known for its trophy largemouth bass. We had a nice site away from where large groups were gathering. It was a great place to be for a day, before our site at Gamble Rogers was available.

It was a great feeling to be back at Flagler Beach, when we expected it to be a year before returning. We had a few more days in our favorite Florida locations.

On our last full day at Flagler Beach, we got to see Palmer, the loggerhead turtle, being released after several months in the turtle hospital. He has 4 transmitters attached and we have been following his progress on his way north. (https://conserveturtles.org/sea-turtle-tracking-active…/)

What a great finale to our stay there!