Day 34 – It was 29 degrees at 8 a.m., windy & sunny. We packed up & got ready to travel, leaving the Park at 11:20 after waiting in line at the dump station – we weren’t the only ones heading out. We weren’t positive about where we were going to be spending the night. We’d talked about going back to Buck Hall Recreation Area; we’d had a great time there in 2017. The campground is located in Frances Marion National Forest & because of the shutdown, we’d been unable to get any information as to whether the Buck Hall Campground would be open.
133 miles, (3:45), 33256-33389
We took good old Route 17 South again, arriving at Buck Hall at 12:40 p.m. There was no indication that they were closed so we took the one-lane gravel road to the entrance, only to find that due to the lack of funding, they were closed until further notice. We couldn’t back up with the tow car attached, so we had to unhook the car so we could turn around to get back out to the highway. After getting it all back together again, we continued south on Route 17.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
Traffic wasn’t too bad. We decided to go to Edisto Beach State Park, farther south, beyond Charleston. Our route took us onto I-526 west then south, which bypassed downtown Charleston, avoiding the heavier city traffic. Once away from the city and back on Route 17, we stopped at the boat landing for lunch at the bridge onto Edisto Island.
Once we got on Route 174S on the Island, the road narrowed & we were out in the country. It was beautiful. Live Oak trees & Palmettos lined the roads, there were stands by the road for selling sweetgrass baskets (they were not open this time of year), quaint old churches & the old post office, shacks selling fresh seafood – charming. Colorful marshes on both sides of the road and hardly any traffic at all. Right before reaching the State Park, we found a place to get propane for the RV. We’d looked for a place all the way down south today, and were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to top off the tanks. The weather was going to be cold a couple more nights.
We arrived at Edisto Beach State Park at 3:05 p.m., 43 degrees, and some wind gusts. We stopped at the Ranger’s Station & were given a list of 4 campsites that were available for the next 7 nights. We had unhooked the tow car at the propane place, so we took the car to drive around the campgrounds to check out the available sites. There are two campgrounds here: Live Oak, with 50 campsites; and Beach, with 74 campsites. All sites have water & electric; there is a dump station close by. Most campsites were empty in Live Oak. Beach campground was half full. The one campsite at Beach which was on the list for us to see was not a good site, completely open like being in a parking lot. The three sites at Live Oak varied – one was in a crowded location across from a parking lot, one was small & right next to its neighboring site with no greenery in between, and the third was nice & private on three sides but near the end of the road (which means that every vehicle that goes thru the campground has to pass by to get out – we’ve found this makes for lots of activity & noise on the weekends). We chose the third campsite (#101) at Live Oak, but drove through again just to double check.
There was a really nice section of Live Oak campground where 6 campsites had views of the water & marshlands. Most of those sites didn’t have a big view but it was still quite nice. Of those six campsites, one site (#118) had a really outstanding view and was quite private with tall Palmettos & Live Oaks on both sides. Since the Ranger hadn’t offered us any of those sites as available, I figured they were all taken, at least for some part of the week we wanted to stay. Rob was smart to come up with the idea that maybe we could get one of the waterview sites for a few days & move to #101 for the other days. We went back to the Ranger’s Station & he asked what the status was for site #118; was it possibly open for a few days? Well, yes, she says, it’s open for the week. I didn’t offer it to you because your vehicle looked too big to fit in that campsite. Rob said, “You’d be surprised how small of a site we can get this Winnebago into! It has a tight turning radius.” And the site was ours. (Lesson learned: do not just assume the only empty campsites the host is offering you ARE the only available campsites for you.)
Edisto Beach State Park, Edisto Island, SC
Site 118, Edisto Beach State Park, Edisto Island, SC
Site 118, Edisto Beach State Park, Edisto Island, SC
Site 118, Edisto Beach State Park, Edisto Island, SC
Edisto Beach State Park, Edisto Island, SC
This is by far one of the best campsites we’ve ever had. It fits us like a glove. There is no one around us at all (for now), and even if they were here, we wouldn’t be able to see them for all the surrounding trees with hanging spanish moss. We drove front-in so that the dashboard is overlooking the marsh & the kitties have wonderful sunlight. The tide comes in & goes out and with the low tide, the birds come to visit. Some of the pictures below were taken from inside the RV looking out. Rob also got pictures of the shore birds right there in front of us. We don’t even have to walk the causeway, LOL.
It took us so long to decide on a campsite and get checked in that by the time we unpacked & settled in, it was time to open the wine & beer and sit here & enjoy the scenery. The high today was 44 degrees, sunny and windy. Tomorrow the State Park is offering a 1/2-hour program at the nearby Environmental Learning Center, “Gators of the Lowcountry”. Goody!