Freedom is one of my favorite parts of homeschooling! We can quite literally do anything we want! Last week Rutledge and I were reading his book for literature where the setting takes place on a small island with a lighthouse. It occurred to me that not just Rutledge but all three of my children have never been to a lighthouse. I knew my girls had Fall break coming with their hybrid program so I got a wild hair and decided we’d plan a road trip!
I did a little research and discovered South Carolina has only ONE publicly accessible light house and it was just a quick 2.5 hour drive away! So, while many travel to the mountains for Fall break, we decided to discover the beach! We got up early because the first lighthouse tour is at 9:30 and the tickets to climb the lighthouse are on a first come, first serve basis.
We left Columbia around 7:15 and arrived at the state park by 10:15 and that included a quick rest stop along the way! The timing of the drive was perfect! Traffic was very minimal and the beautiful weather definitely complemented the ease of getting there! As soon as we entered the park my crew was immediately enchanted by the lush green foliage of palms and sweeps of moss all around. One exclaimed it looked just like the jungle!
We paid an entry fee ($8/adult, $4/child ages 6-15, FREE/children 5 and younger) and navigated the park to parking lot C - the closest to the lighthouse. This time of year was perfection! The weather was warm but not too hot, everyone must have been either at school or in the mountains because the park was very, very empty. There were 2 other cars in the Lot C parking lot. We walked right up to purchase tickets ($5/per person and climbers must be 44 inches tall) to climb the lighthouse and were able to enter right away. There was no time to get scared, change our minds, or back down. :)
Immediately upon entering you see the black iron spiraling staircase leading up to the top! Without looking back we started to climb right away. By the second tier the nerves started setting in. We were going really high up and it doesn’t help that the steps aren’t opaque. You can see through them! We enjoyed the diagrams on each tier showing where you were in the elevation the lighthouse and some historical information about it.
While one of my crew stayed back, my other two and I pressed on and climbed all 167 steps to the top! The views at the top were beautiful!! We were so very thankful to have such a beautiful day to enjoy this trip and the sights at the top!
The lighthouse grounds have been preserved to maintain the foundation of the original lighthouse house along with various outbuildings. It was cool to see it from above.
When we returned to bottom level and everyone was feeling much better about our proximity to the ground, we decided to explore the lighthouse grounds. They had a couple outbuildings. One was a tank pump house (a well wouldn’t work at the beach) and two others held artifacts.
We really liked learning that books were included with supplies delivered to the lighthouse keeper and his family at the house via a monthly supply boat!
After exploring the area, we were starting to feel pretty warm so we went to explore the visitor center. It had some interesting facts about turtle nests and ways to protect turtles from waste. It wasn’t anything particularly special but you can use the restrooms and buy waters if you need them.
The park also has a Nature Center. We would have really liked to visit that as well but it’s located in a separate area and would require a drive to get to it. Due to our time constraints we decided against traveling over to see it. If we had more time we definitely would have made the trip. Online it says the nature center has live animals and many more exhibits than the visitor center. For this trip, we wanted to spend time at the beach accessible in the park. The weather was warm and perfect to spend time in the ocean! ...and we were hungry it was almost lunch time!
When you visit and you’re ready to hit the beach remember to park in parking lot D. It’s the closest and the park ranger told us most people either forget it’s there or don’t even realize it because they’re busy parking in lots A, B, and C. Parking lot D is right on the beach and it had very few cars there- maybe 5. We changed into swimsuits using the bathhouse and we were ready!
We enjoyed a picnic lunch with all our favorite snacks within view of the lighthouse.
Can you see it behind those trees?
After lunch we had about an hour to enjoy the beautiful water! It felt wonderful after getting so warm walking around the park! We had time constraints preventing us from staying longer so we had to scoot out by 1:30 to get home in time for evening violin lessons. Traveling home the traffic was minimal. All in all it was such a special, happy day! If you haven’t had the opportunity to explore inside a lighthouse or if you’ve never seen one in real life, I HIGHLY recommend making the trip to Hunting Island state park! We had the BEST time! The stuff of homeschool core memories! I’m so glad we went!
