February 5-7, 2021

Those of you that know us well won’t be surprised to hear that Myrtle Beach is not high on our list of places to visit. However, we have driven through a couple of times when it’s been much like a ghost town. Both times were in the off-season, once at 7am when there was not a person in sight. Another time we decided to eat out before getting to the airport. We drove the whole length of the “strip” before finding a restaurant the was open. We got a window seat overlooking the beach, and had a nice meal. Given the number of establishments, I can’t imagine how crazy it is there during high season.

Looking around for another weekend campground, we ended up heading to the Myrtle Beach State Park Campground. It’s fairly big, but the reservation calendar looked like it was only about half booked. It’s hard to know what your campsite will be like, but we use a few parameters to choose –

• a site on the periphery, so that there is no one behind us
• choosing a site currently showing adjacent sites empty
• on a roadway that looks less traveled and no turns so that headlights shine in
• On a loop that is not the closest to the nearest roadway
• not too to close to the bath house, or trash area

Myrtle Beach is an hour and a half from Oak Island, so we left Friday afternoon to have time to set up and take a walk before it got dark. Driving through a Myrtle Beach on the main highway showed so much more of the tourism that takes place there. If you can put a word before “House of Pancakes” and pop up a sign, it’s there. I lost count of those. Then there are the beach stores – there are 12 Eagles stores along the strip, plus 5 or 6 Pacific stores and many others. If you don’t find a shark tooth on the beach, there are plenty of places to buy some! I think we’ll stick with off season visits.

The state park is 312 acres located right at the end of the commercial strip (we walked the beach up to one of the commercial piers). It has a mile of beach and a very nice fishing pier. The campground seemed to be about 2/3 booked, but the sites are well separated and buffered with plenty of trees and vegetation. We did not have neighbors on either side or in front of us, but there were campers a few spots down in both directions. Once again, the weather was threatening rain and chilly, so we fired up our heater as soon as we set up camp. The heater is really small, but it heats up the space quickly and has kept us warm.

The campground has a 14-day limit, but there were families there that looked like they’ve been there much longer. They have huge campers, and the amount of “stuff” outside is crazy – awnings and tents with multiple tables and outdoor rugs, lots of outdoor cooking setup, bikes for the family, kid toys galore, dogs and cats. I’d hate to have to pack all that up every 2 weeks!

There is a nice nature trail in the park, starting near the campground, going through the forest to a pond, then meandering through some swampy areas and coming out at the beach. We spied some ducks in the pond and a great blue heron hanging out in the swamp.

The partridge berries on the floor of the forest brought back memories of hunting for these with my dad when I was a kid. I think we made little terrariums with them.

We didn’t see any yellow-bellied sapsuckers, but we saw plenty of evidence of them! They drill their holes in straight lines, and here the vines growing up along the tree were drilled as well. That can’t be good for the tree!

The serious rain came during our second night. It was a a good storm with loud thunder and bright lightening flashes (although someone in the camper slept through it). The one who did not sleep through it eventually got to sleep, only to wake up in a puddle on her side of the bed. This was our first time out in a heavy rain, and our back window is leaking. Bummer! Breakfast, another walk on the beach and we headed home. We still call it a successful camping weekend – even with the weather and the leak. We continue to learn how to live in a small space, and I think we bring less with us each time. And, most importantly, we continue to have fun!

Just by luck we parked on the high spot in our site – not everyone else did.

Sights throughout the park –