We returned recently from our first visit to Huntington Beach State Park, located in Murrells Inlet, S.C., conveniently situated south of busy Myrtle Beach and close to Litchfield and Pawleys Island beaches along the Grand Strand.
We’d originally booked our stay during our Spring Break in April 2020….and then COVID-19 struck the world, leaving everything as we knew it (and know it) changed. South Carolina state parks, along with just about everything else, closed to help flatten the virus’s curve and impact on our healthcare systems.
As soon as the state parks re-opened in mid May, however, we took the last site available and planned a four-day trip to this incredible campground. **At the time of this writing, South Carolina State Parks are still operating on a limited capacity basis, which means fewer people are allowed into the parks each day and social distancing is still in effect.
To us, RV or tent camping is the perfect vacation to take during a pandemic-related quarantine. We have a travel trailer, which we exclusively use (meaning, we do not loan or rent it out to anyone else), so I know exactly when the sheets and towels were last washed, when everything was last cleaned, etc. It really is your tiny home on wheels. And most campsites are fairly spread out, allowing you to easily practice social distancing.
Huntington Beach State Park now officially ranks up there as one of our all-time favorite RV camping spots (it’s up there with our top-ranked camping destination, Davidson River Campground in North Carolina). If you’ve ever visited South Carolina’s coast, you know many of the beach towns can be quite crowded due to all of the hotels, condos and rental homes in the area. Huntington Beach, however, sits on hundreds of acres of untouched marshland and wooded area, edged to the East by 3 miles of protected Atlantic ocean shoreline.
Day trippers can enter the state park for the day and take advantage of the public beach access, the marsh board walks (which feature some incredible bird watching and natural sea life in abundance), miles of hiking trails, a bird sanctuary and much more. Campers have access to all of these amenities and more.
There are two sides to the campground located inside Huntington Beach State Park. In the center of the park, sits the visitor’s center, a large parking lot with public beach access, a playground and the amazing Atalaya, the remains of the moorish-style winter home of Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington, who left the grounds and nearby Brookgreen Gardens as their gift to us. (Tours of the home are available, but call ahead to see when they’re being offered in a present and post-COVID-19 world).
The North campground is the original camping area inside the park. Large oaks and other native trees covered in Spanish moss surround the perimeter sites, giving welcome shade to campers – which is important since South Carolina summers can boil into the 90s with high humidity.
We stayed on the North side in site number 123 on the outside loop. The site was level, with a water and 30/50 amp electrical hook up. A dump station is located nearby with three pull in bays available. Our site had plenty of shade and backed up to a wooded area, giving us plenty of space to spread out and enjoy. Each site also has a fire pit ring and a picnic table.
There are bathhouses located throughout the campground. Since state parks are known to be slightly more “rustic,” than a private campground might be, we were pleasantly surprised by how clean and well-maintained the facilities were. The parks have definitely increased their cleaning schedules since the pandemic started, and it shows.
The South side campground is newer, featuring paved concrete pads, and some full hook up sites. Being newer, the sites felt much closer together, and lacked the shade trees more abundant in the North campground. BUT – the beach access in the South campground is paved from the camping area all the way to the beach – making it easier to roll a cooler, or a wheelchair, all the way to the sand. The North campground beach access points are more like wooded, trails, with knobby roots to work around. (Neither is better or worse, just trying to paint a picture for you so you can determine what might be better for you and your family).
The beach is large and mostly uncrowded. It’s more populated near the public access visitor’s center area, but as you work your way down either side of the beach, it opens up. I’m told there’s fantastic surf fishing on this beach, although we didn’t try it while we were there.
Huntington Beach State Park is pet friendly, except for a small stretch of beach which features the bird sanctuary. Pets must be on a 6-foot leash at all times, but we saw lots of four-legged friends enjoying the salt and sand as much as we did while we were there! Our mini golden doodle, Rosco, even got to play in the waves for the first time on this trip and had a blast!
The WiFi in this campground is spotty. Supposedly it’s better near the visitor’s center, but we never were able to connect while we were there. There’s also no cable hook up in these campsites, but you’re at the beach, so hopefully watching TV is not high on the activities list!
Once you exit the campground, you’re only minutes away from all of fun activities the Grand Strand area has to offer. But while you’re inside the state park, you can almost forget you’re near Myrtle Beach. It’s a beautiful, well-kept beach state park that we will definitely plan to visit again!
