Hunting Island State Park
Hunting Island, SC
South of Beaufort, Hunting Island State Park is a wild, wooded barrier island beach best known for its black and white lighthouse and a stretch of bleached driftwood locals call the boneyard. Erosion moves fast here, among the highest rates on the East Coast, so the shoreline looks a little different every year.
Nothing else on this stretch of coast looks like the boneyard beach and the lighthouse together, though the erosion that makes it dramatic also means no facilities right on the sand itself.
How we score beachesThe lighthouse has had stretches closed for repairs, so check the park's site before planning to climb it. The boneyard on North Beach is worth the trip regardless.
A $5 per person entrance fee covers the park, with several lots near the lighthouse, the nature center, and North Beach. Weekend lots fill by late morning in summer.
A paved path leads from the main lot toward the lighthouse, and a boardwalk crosses the dunes near the nature center, but most of the beach itself is reached over loose sand with no paved surface.
Leashed dogs under 6 feet are welcome in most of the park, but they're not allowed on the pier, in the lighthouse complex, or past the posted markers on the tip of North Beach, which protects shorebird habitat.
Spring and fall bring the mildest weather and the fewest crowds, while summer water warms into the low 80s under the same hurricane season, June through November, that shapes the whole Carolina coast. A bad storm season can change the boneyard's look from one year to the next.
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