Huntington Beach State Park

9.22.17-9.27.17

Fall Break…Anniversary Trip…Beach that allows dogs?! We loved Huntington Beach State Park and can’t wait to go back. It was so much fun getting to watch the dogs jump in the waves and we enjoyed eating out instead of our usual campground meals.

Huntington Beach State Park is located in Murrells Inlet, SC, just south of Myrtle Beach. The park’s entrance is welcoming, with at bridge over the freshwater lagoon and saltwater marsh. Multiple viewing docks can be accessed along the walkway with lots of wildlife, including alligators. The park office is well stocked with ice, firewood, refreshments, and souvenirs. Atalaya House is just a short walk from the campground, admission is $2 for adults. They offer guided tours, however we wanted to walk through the house ourselves. There is quite a bit of history in this house. They rent the venue out for weddings and other events. It is so pretty!

The campground has 139 sites with electric and water. When reserving there were only four sites left to choose from. We ended up choosing site 133 in the back of the campground. Knowing people would be walking past the sites in the front to get to the beach, we did not want to be in those sites. Site 133 was pretty tight, not having a large outdoor living area. It wasn’t too big of a deal though because we spent the majority of the day either walking the dogs or sitting on the beach. 24 of their sites are full hookup, something we may consider next time we are there for a full week. When arriving at 2 a.m. on Friday night, the campground was packed full. We were the last ones to arrive. However by Sunday the campground was only 25% full, many of them retirement aged campers.

Our beach wagon [details on Recommendations page] was perfect to take everything to and from the site. It was a short walk from the back of the campground to the wooden walkway up to the beach. The beach was not crowded at all. There was a red flag (rip current) two of the days we were there and the waves were perfect the rest. One of the campers was surfing!

The only complaint about the beach/campground would be the bugs. We couldn’t enjoy a campfire at night because of all the gnats that would attack you. Even taking out the dogs was miserable. On the beach we were attacked by biting flies. It hurt so bad. One solution that helped was to move our chairs to the edge of the water. We were waist deep sitting down in a tide pool to avoid the flies.

Places to visit:

• Atalaya Castle
• Gilligan’s Mini Golf
• Yum Yum Shop or Painter’s Ice Cream
• Garden City Pier
• The Claw- Great views, Heather liked the Oyster Shooters, I loved the crab nachos
• Dead Dog Saloon- Great view, sit on the patio

We were having so much fun we reserved one extra night at the end of our trip. On the way out of the campground we stopped at the dump per the usual routine. This campground has the NICEST dump station I’ve ever seen with three lanes. Unfortunately this process did not go smoothly for us. We ended up with a clogged toilet that took over an hour to get working again. At least we were at a nice dump station with no line behind us.

Things we learned:

1. Probably shouldn’t use charmin in the camper toilet. We have switched to angel soft.
2. Whoever suggested having a water sprayer hookup by the door of the camper was a genius. We use it on the dogs quite often. This trip brought so much sand into the camper.
3. Don’t go to Drunken Jacks for dinner, even if it’s cool to see the goats on the island of the marsh. The food isn’t great and there are so many other better places in Murrells Inlet.