Edisto Memorial Gardens, Orangeburg, SC

One of South Carolina’s treasures is Edisto Memorial Gardens in Orangeburg, SC. The City of Orangeburg maintains this impressive garden which houses nearly 80 beds of roses ranging from miniatures to Old Garden Roses.

For many years, I had noticed a billboard on an interstate advertising the gardens, but I never made it to see it for myself until last summer. It was another hot South Carolina day, so I went right to the walkway by the Edisto River. A wooden boardwalk leads you over the Tupelo-Cypress wetland and along the river. Its shade provided a refuge from the hot summer day, and I enjoyed stopping to watch waterwheel in the river that once provided freshwater for the gardens.

After my stroll on the boardwalk, I wandered the grounds, taking in the beauty of all of the roses and the surrounding nature. The roses vary in size and color, and they are all so beautiful! A garden wedding was being set up while I explored the garden.

If you are ever traveling on I-26 and just need a break to stretch your feet and stop and smell the roses, be sure to pull off on exit 145 for Orangeburg. The garden is well worth the 10 mile detour off of the exit. 

Musgrove Mill, Clinton, SC

About an hour outside of Columbia is the small town of Clinton. I have visited there many times and even have a few friends from there, yet I never knew that there was a beautiful state historic site with trails AND a waterfall. Waterfalls are scarce in the Midlands of South Carolina, so this was an exciting find for me at under an hour from Columbia!

One July afternoon, I gathered my friends from Clinton, and we explored the beautiful state historic site. During the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Musgrove Mill took place at the site in 1780, and the Patriots triumphed over the Loyalists in a surprise victory. Today, that battle is remembered throughout the park with various signs along the trails.

It was a hot and sticky South Carolina day, but Musgrove Mill was still an exciting adventure for us. The trails are wooded and provide a lot of shade, and we even dipped our feet in the river at various points during our hike to cool off a bit. We had a little one with us, so we only hiked the British Camp Trail which begins right next to the Visitor’s Center. This was an easy hike, even for the little one, and we even did a little geocashing during the trek!

After the hike, we drove to the separate entrance of Horseshoe Falls (just a few miles down the road). A short paved path leads from the parking lot to the falls. This is a short path, but it also connects to the Battlefield Trail if you are up for more hiking!

I was pleasantly surprised with Horseshoe Falls. It’s not a huge waterfall, but it is beautiful and has a pool that you can wade in right under the falls. You can also climb to the top of the waterfalls!

Horseshoe Falls provides a great recreational area for local Clinton residents, and on hot days, the pool is packed with families wading in the pool and enjoying the natural beauty! For more information, visit http://www.southcarolinaparks.com/musgrovemill/introduction.aspx. 

Murrells Inlet Boat Parade – 4th of July

Earlier this year, Coastal Living ranked Murrells Inlet as one of the best places to celebrate the 4^th of July (http://dailycatch.coastalliving.com/2015/06/30/best-beach-towns-july-fourth/), and I can tell you that I share the sentiment! The spirit of the 4^th of July is vibrant in the Inlet…combine that with the excitement of a boat parade and an amazing fireworks display…and you get a 4^th of July celebration that can’t be topped!

First, my favorite…the boat parade! For the last 32 years, Murrells Inlet has hosted an amazing boat parade that features a boat decoration competition along with a dock decoration competition. The parade begins at the Garden City Point and travels the waters to the Murrells Inlet Marsh Walk and into a residential section of the marsh all the way to Morse Park Landing.

If you have the opportunity to enjoy the festivities in a boat, I would definitely recommend that. My family loves the competitive spirit of all of the boats, and it’s really fun to get to see all of the docks decorated along the route as well. If you can’t travel by boat for the parade, you can make plans to watch the boats sailing by at the Marsh Walk and Pier, Belin Methodist, or a number of parks along the marsh. Bystanders bring water guns to shoot water at the boats as they pass.

After the parade, a committee of judges ranks the top boats and docks. We have never won, but we are still learning the ropes as we have only entered the last two years. To spice up the decorations, there is a different theme every year. This year’s theme was “Red, White, and Southern” while last year’s theme was “Saluting our Founding Fathers.”

After the boat parade, we like to relax outside and wait for the 4^th of July “Salute from the Shore” flyover featuring vintage military aircraft. After a leisurely afternoon of relaxing in the sun and swimming, we enjoy a family and friends with a barbecue by the water.

Once dusk settles in, we board the boat once again to go back towards the Marsh Walk for a spectacular fireworks display. We try to get as close as we can to see and hear the magnificent fireworks. Often times, we get so close that there is smoke and other debris falling into the boat!

The 4^th of July is fun to celebrate in a lot of places, but I definitely recommend checking out Murrells Inlet at least once for the boat parade and fireworks display! 

Forty Acre Rock Heritage Preserve, Kershaw, SC

Last year, one of my parents’ friends gave them some really unique photographs of rare plant species. The photos looked as if they could have been taken on the moon – large craters filled with plants I had never seen before!

It took me forever to finally figure out where the photos were taken, but once I found out that they were taken at Forty Acre Rock Heritage Preserve, I convinced a friend to take a day trip to hike the trails to the rock and locate the plants that had been so intriguing to me in the photographs!

Just about an hour outside of Columbia is the hidden treasure of 40 Acre Rock Heritage Preserve in Kershaw, SC (which is actually in Lancaster County, not Kershaw County!). A beautiful hiking trail winds through wooded forests with streams and waterfalls, leading you to the large granite flatrock area. Contrary to its name, the rock is only fourteen acres, but it is still a beautiful site to see with rare and even endangered plant species such as elf orpine and pool sprite.

Unfortunately, some of the rock has been defaced with spray-paint, and there were some broken bottles and other litter dropped about around the rock. However, the rare combination of granite surface, mountain views, and varying plants provides for an interesting hike. Once we got to the rock, I was intrigued by the solution pools which were filled with thin red colored plants. We spent a lot of time wandering around the granite, looking in every solution pool for the different plant species.

I’ll end by letting the photos speak for themselves!