America's 2010 Top Beach #8: Beachwalker Park, Kiawah Island, South Carolina

Beachwalker Park on Kiawah Island, South Carolina got Dr. Beach’s nod for the number 8 beach of 2010 in America. And if you know a little about South Carolina, you’ll know it’s one of the best places to play golf and tennis. With the layout of the barrier islands around the Carolinas there are literally dozen of nature walks and kayak and canoe paths where you can see thousands of birds and other wildlife. But let’s get to the beach.






Beachwalker Park is a small part of the great Kiawah beach area. The nice thing about it is that along with its beauty, there are restrooms, lifeguards, and a snack bar in the summer. The park is designed for families with a nice walk area along what is called Captain Sam’s Spit.






Here you will see nature at its finest with untouched beach and shoreline. And if you can bring your bike, you’ll have even more fun as there are trails that take you just about everywhere on Kiawah. If you want to park in the park, there is a $7 fee.


Memorial Day fills the park and unless you come very early, you won’t find parking.


Beachwalker Park beach is clean and the view is beautiful. When you’re up for eating, Kiawah Island has many restaurants to try out. We enjoyed the Fresh Market Village Shoppes and again, the bike trails make everything fun, if you bring a bike. If you don’t – there is a bike shop on the island that rents bikes. If you have the time, there is also a kayak rental near the bike shop.


Cottages and resorts fill up quickly around holidays, but call around to get a good price. Beachwalker Park is worth a visit and is why Dr. Beach put it on his list this year.


Beach Index:


- Atlantic beach with compacted tan sand
- Rent or bring a bike, many trails that are fun
- Stay a week or longer if you can
- Family fun beach with facilities

Farewell South Carolina

My time as a naturalist at the Francis Beidler Forest has come to an end. Looking back on my journal and browsing through a full portfolio of images I can say with some degree of confidence that I made the best of three months with Audubon. If I were to quantify this time it would break down to something like this: three full moons, two seasons, twenty-six guided canoe trips, one music video in the swamp, four large-mouth bass, one plane ride, five visits from friends, one leech, one completed guidebook, one redesigned brochure, eighteen swamp stomps, and 6,000 photos.

In one last effort to convey to the world the importance and sanctity of this little oasis, I have compiled a video highlighting some of my favorite moments I shared with the swamp. Enjoy.

Flyin High

There are many ways to see a swamp. You can canoe. You can kayak. You can walk on a boardwalk. You can slog through the water. You can even hop from cypress knee to cypress knee. Or, you can fly.

Buddy Wehman, a retired pilot lives just outside Harleyville, SC and keeps his 1939 Fleet biplane in a hanger at the Summerville airport. After months of looking at aerial Google maps I wanted to see for myself the braided channels and towering trees of the 1,600 acres. I love anything that changes my perspective. My main motivation, however, was to document the dichotomy between old growth forest and clear-cut lowcountry.

On Monday morning I met him at the airport and we waited an hour for the fog to dissipate. To kill time he dissected the simplistic anatomy of a biplane and told me about the time the propeller nearly severed his femoral artery. All alone, he used a belt for a tourniquet and drove himself to a hospital 30 minutes away. I figured I was in good hands should our plane crash into the Hudson, or in our case, the Edisto. Any fears or uneasiness about flying in a seventy year-old plane quickly vanished once I put on the leather hat and goggles.

Flying high over the eastern edge of Harleyville we had a great view of the wetland transition zones. This whole area is located along the Four Holes Swamp watershed draining some 500,000 acres of land. As seen in the photos below the dividing line between secondary growth and primary forest is pretty abrupt.

Imagine 60 miles of this landscape once again connected, uninterrupted, and allowed to flow freely to the Edisto River. National Audubon and other conservation groups are slowly buying up pieces of private land to revert logged sections back to old growth. This sort of thing takes a lot of money and of course, a lot of time.

This is what is known as Mellard's Lake. The house I live in is at the middle bend just on the left.