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!

Cypress Gardens, Charleston, SC

I’ve been talking about checking out all of the hidden gems of South Carolina all summer, and one of my coworkers recently mentioned Cypress Gardens to me. I had never heard of it, and when I did a quick Google search, I became immediately fascinated with it when I found out that the swan scene from The Notebook and various scenes from The Patriot were filmed on the grounds. I had the opportunity to visit the gardens with one of my friends earlier this summer on a Sunday morning, and we had a great time!

We left Columbia around 7am, and we made it to the gardens a little after 9:00. Sunday seemed to be a great time to go (hated to miss church, but not many people were there!). While we were purchasing our tickets, the lady at the desk told us that we should definitely sign up for a boat ride. Boat rides were only $5/person, so we signed up to drift off into the 10:00 tour!

I am so glad that we were encouraged to take the boat ride – it was so much fun! You can sign up for a guided tour, or you can rent a private boat (both are very reasonable at $5/person). There are lots of alligators and other wildlife, so we opted for the guided tour to be on the safe side! Immediately upon leaving the dock, you are transported into a fantasy world of black water swamps and bald cypress trees! 

Our guide was very knowledgeable, and he told us stories about all of the movies being filmed there. The swans from The Notebook scene were brought into the swamp during the winter, and other swans were digitally edited into the scene. 

Waterlilies grow all over the swamp, and at one point, the guide picked a waterlily and passed it around for all of us to hold. We were looking for alligators during the tour, and we finally found one on the way back to the dock. It swam away before we could get too close, so I didn't get a great photo of it. 

The boat ride was about an hour and was such a magical experience. After the ride, we toured the grounds, starting at the butterfly house. There were many butterflies and other flying insects and birds. Adjacent to the butterfly house is a swamparium that contains a wide variety of amphibians, reptiles, and fish. We explored that a bit, but we were really excited to go explore the gardens.

We headed down the trail that lined the swamp. The views from the path were just as gorgeous as the views we had seen from the boat. We even spotted a baby alligator right by the path! 

Cypress Gardens was such a hidden gem. I am glad I found out about it when I did, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a new adventure outside of Charleston. For more information, visit: http://www.cypressgardens.info/.

Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, SC

Swan Lake Iris Gardens has been on my SC bucket list for a long time. I finally made it to the gardens earlier this summer, and this is a destination that will not disappoint!

At right about an hour from Columbia, this park is the perfect day trip! Parking is easy, and once you arrive, you will be immediately captivated by the various swans and their surroundings. There is a short path which allows you to walk alongside the pond and its entire perimeter. Along the way, you can view the swans in their natural habitats and other hidden surprises such as a Braille garden and a butterfly park. There are all types of swans to observe and the grounds are truly amazing!

When you are finished walking along the pond, you can travel across the elevated pedestrian bridge which takes you across the street into another garden. Although I did not spot any swans on this side of the garden, I was able to observe lots of other wildlife, including several birds. A wooden boardwalk allows you to walk across the top of wetland area.

The best part about the park? It's absolutely free! Be sure to stop by sometime in mid-May or early-June to see the 25 species of full blooming Japanese irises! (I barely missed this window, but it was still a lot of fun!). For more information, visit: http://www.sumtersc.gov/swan-lake-iris-gardens.aspx!

Go in peace,
Kindest Warrior

Community in the Garden - USC Arboretum Tour

Recently, I came across and article on the University of South Carolina’s W. Gordon Besler Arboretum, right here in the heart of Columbia, SC and just off of Divine Street. I had no idea that such a vast nature preserve existed within Columbia!

Excited by the prospect of the Arboretum, I gathered several friends who were also eager to experience an educational adventure on a Sunday afternoon. We entered the park and found laminated maps that were available and identified the different sections of the preserve. There are 10 different biomes within the Arboretum, including the Eastern Prairie, the Bottomland Hardwood Forest, the Upland Hardwood Forest, the Wetland Community, the Riparian Community, the American Beech Forest, the Bright-Resistant American Chestnut Forest, the Bald Cypress Swamp, the Ice Age Relict Community, and the Pine Grove.

We started down the Arboretum Loop, passing “The Orchard” and an outdoor classroom for USC students. Just beyond the classroom, we ventured down a side-path to the “Zen Garden.” The path was a bit overgrown, and we even had to veer off of it at one point due to a beautifully constructed spider web that we wanted to preserve. The path abruptly ended with a fallen tree, so we turned around to return to the main pathway. Once we got closer to Arboretum Loop, we were greeted by a crowd of people and immediately captivated by the conservational spirit of Dr. Pat DeCoursey. Since 2007, Dr. DeCoursey has dedicated thousands of volunteer hours to renovating the Arboretum, and in 2011, she was awarded the 2011 South Carolina Environmental Awareness Award for re-foresting the W. Gordon Besler Arboretum. She is the face of the Arboretum and greets guests during the Sunday Open Houses. 

Dr. DeCoursey told us that the reason that the trail that we were exploring was closed off was because the Arboretum experienced a tremendous amount of damage earlier in the summer from a storm. Many large trees fell, and volunteers are still working to clear all of the debris. We were sad to miss the Zen Garden, but there was a lot more for us to see!

By this time, we had gathered with a local father and his seven year old son, listening to Dr. DeCoursey tell us more about the Arboretum. She had promised the son a tasting of the fruit of the PawPaw Tree, and she invited us to return to the picnic table by the entrance to try a piece of the fruit. I had never heard of a PawPaw Tree, but she pointed them out to us along the way and also explained that they are the largest trees in North America that produce edible fruit. Who knew? Native to Kentucky, these trees produce a round, cylindrical fruit which tasted to us like a cross between a mango and a banana with a rich texture and large seeds.

PawPaw Fruit in Tree

PawPaw Fruit

PawPaw Fruit

After enjoying the fruit and talking with the group around the picnic table for some time, we were sad to part with Dr. DeCoursey as she had other visitors to attend to, but we were excited to explore the rest of the Arboretum Loop on our own. The loop includes many biomes, and we especially liked the Cypress Swamp which reminded us of our recent visit to Cypress Gardens. The swamp was mostly dried up since it has been such a warm summer, and we all commented that this would be a wonderful place to visit monthly to see how the plants and surrounding look different during each season. One of my favorite plants was a tree with bright fuchsia colored berries.

In the short time that we were with her in the Arboretum, Dr. DeCoursey was able to engage our diverse group, educate us on wide variety of plants in the Arboretum, and create a sense of community among strangers. I would highly recommend a trip to the USC Arboretum. Please be advised that the Arboretum is only open to the public the third Sunday of every month from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m., so be sure to plan ahead for this afternoon of exploration. Located at 4080 Bloomwood Road within the residential Sherwood Forest district, only street parking is available. Admission is free, but donations are accepted. For more information, visit http://arboretum.biol.sc.edu/. 

Go in peace,
Kindest Warrior