A Visit to Myrtle Beach State Park - Wednesday - October 12, 2011

It has been raining off and on since Sunday, with wind in the 20 mph range for those days as well. I had to do some contract work in Edenton, NC and Nancy has been working at Home Depot. After my dentist appointment this morning, the sun finally broke thru the clouds and Nancy suggested we take a trip to Myrtle Beach State Park.

 

We have never hiked the short Nature trails here, so today was going to be the day.

In addition, we knew there were several geocaches located in the park and

we could search for them along the way.

We put on plenty of bug spray and set out on a small hike along the Sculptured Oak Trail to the pond and then a right onto the Yaupon Trail to the Ocean. The mosquitos went along with us, but the bug repellent spray seemed to keep them at bay. It was extremely humid and I was sweating like I was in a sauna…maybe we were. Nancy snapped a bunch of pictures as usual, but we didn’t see a whole lot of wildlife along the way.

Our Starting Point

Now down to the pond

Well, not much wildlife today…  the pond was dry

even with all the rain we have had the last few days ;o((

Beautiful wildflowers though…

and a Gray Catbird:o))

After the pond, we followed the

Yaupon Trail toward the ocean.

The first geocache was on this trail and

I am zooming in on its location.

We went right to the spot and spent considerable time searching

but never found the cache.  This tree with the cross on it is

what we found, the cache was missing ;o(

We continued on until we reached the ocean road.

This is a picture of the end of the Yaupon Trail and

the Maritime Forrest we hiked through.

Our next geocache required us to walk to the other end of

the state park, near the campground.

Here is our first view of the State Park Fishing Pier.

We passed beautiful wildflowers along our walk.

This one, the Beach Morning Glory,

plays a very important role in preventing beach erosion.

We are getting closer to the pier!!

We got to the pier and will return to it later,

but first we wanted to walk the boardwalk to find the next geocache. 

This boardwalk runs from the fishing pier to the campground walkway. You can see downtown Myrtle Beach not that far in the distance.  Myrtle Beach SP is located right next to all the tourist areas and not far from the airport. 

You will hear and see big planes if you camp here.

But if you want to be close to all the action, it is a great place to camp!!

The campground is larger than Huntington Beach SP,

but a little tighter to maneuver.

Wish I had a photo, but here is the map!

We prefer Huntington Beach, but either campground is nice and

provides you easy access to the ocean.

Now, back to the boardwalk… 

We really enjoy this little boardwalk along the ocean.  There were many good signs providing lots of nice to know information.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

The next two signs were very interesting. 

Never thought of wind and salt as pruning tool ;o))

There were hundreds of Gulf Frittilary Butterflies

along the boardwalk!!

At the end of the boardwalk, there is a cement path that leads to the campground.  I sat to take a little rest.  Notice the huge Live Oak Tree behind me.  Hard to believe they can get that big and survive many hurricanes!!

At the end of this path, we went back into the Maritime Forrest to search for geocache number 2.  We didn’t have to go far until we found the spot… but again,

the cache was missing ;o((

We did see this pretty little bird.  Any idea what it is??

Back out of the woods, we head off to find geocache number 3.

We took a short cut through some woods and wound up at

the nature center.

It was closed, but we did see this beautiful cardinal on the ground :o))

We followed the path around the nature center and wound up right where we had park the car!!  But the GPS told us to keep going to find the last cache.  We went a short distance into the woods and saw this interesting fungus!!

and then….

there it is…

THE GEOCACHE!!

Bill opened it up and signed the log:o))

While we only found 1 out of 3 geocaches, we had a wonderful hike and

learn a few things along the way!!

We went back to the car, took off our hiking boots,

drove down to the fishing pier and took a nice stroll out on the pier

to see what was happening.

 

There were quite a few fishermen and

they seemed to be catching mostly spots.

This couple had a cooler full of spots and

were busy cleaning their catch.

This fellow was hoping for a handout!!

This Pigeon must be named Dorothy…

look at those ruby slippers

Here is a picture of the end of the pier.

You can see how close, Second Street Pier is to the the State Park Pier. 

It’s just a short walk north!

 

What was a great way to spend a warm afternoon – hiking, chatting, strolling and just generally enjoying each other’s company. Now, if we could only get this house sold we could do this more often!